Reserving and Gold in Splendor: When the Fourth Action Pays

Reserving is the action new players either never touch or touch too often. At Level 0 you learned the rule. In the openings lesson you saw two good reasons to reserve early. This lesson is about the cost, so you can tell a strong reserve from a nervous one.

The rule, exactly

On a reserve, you take one face-up card from the table, or the top card of any of the three decks without showing it. Then you take 1 Gold, if any are left. The card goes into your hand.

• You can hold at most 3 reserved cards. With 3 in hand, you cannot reserve at all.
• You cannot discard a reserved card. The only way out of your hand is to buy it.
• There is no penalty for reserved cards left in hand at the end. They just score nothing.
• If the Gold is gone, you can still reserve. You get the card and nothing else.

Gold is wild. It stands in for any gem when you buy, even a color you already hold. Spent Gold goes back to the supply, so it can come out again for the next player who reserves. And Gold counts toward your ten-piece limit like any other piece.

What a reserve really costs

Compare a reserve with the usual alternative. Taking three different gems puts 3 pieces in front of you. A reserve puts 1 piece in front of you, the Gold, plus a card you still have to pay for.

So a reserve is about two pieces behind a gem turn. That is the price. It is worth paying when one of these is true:

• The card would be gone by your next turn. Someone else can buy it, and you need it.
• The Gold is worth more than two ordinary gems. That happens when a color you need is empty or nearly empty, and only a wild piece can cover it.
• Taking the card hurts a rival more than it costs you. They were one turn from buying it, and now their plan has to change.

A reserve that does none of these is two pieces thrown away and a hand slot filled.

Which cards to reserve

The best reserve is a card you will buy within two or three turns. Your bonuses already cover part of it, and the Gold you take covers part of the rest.

Level 2 cards in your colors are the classic choice. They score, they add a bonus, and they are often the card an opponent is also eyeing. Player-written strategy notes on Board Game Arena suggest just that pattern: reserve a key level 2 card, keep building with level 1 cards, then buy the reserved card when your bonuses catch up.

Be careful with level 3 cards. A 5-point card that costs 10 or more gems can sit in your hand for half the game. Reserve one early only if your engine is clearly heading toward its colors.

Blind reserves from the deck

Taking the top card of a deck hides your plan and gives you the Gold. It also hands you a card you did not choose.

A blind reserve makes sense when:

• you need the Gold now, and nothing face up is worth taking, or
• you do not want the table to see which card you are chasing.

From the level 1 deck, a blind card is usually cheap enough to buy later. From the level 3 deck, it is a gamble on points and colors. Level 3 of this course looks at what is actually in each deck, so you can judge that gamble better.

Spending Gold well

Gold is your only flexible piece, and only 5 exist in any game. A few habits help:

• Spend Gold on the scarce color. If red is gone from the supply and blue is plentiful, use Gold for red and take blue.
• Save it for a big turn when you can. The same notes recommend holding Gold toward the end, when colors run short and one wild piece can finish a level 3 card.
• Do not hoard it. Gold in front of you counts toward 10. Two Gold you never spend are two pieces you could not take.

Your hand is information

A face-up reserve tells everyone which card you want and roughly which colors you are building. Sometimes that is fine. Sometimes it tells a rival to drain that color before you can buy.

Watch other players’ reserves the same way. A face-up reserve is the clearest signal in the game. The midgame lesson at Level 2 shows how to use it.

Keep a slot open

Late in the game, a reserve can steal the card a rival needs to reach 15. With 3 cards already in your hand, you cannot make that move. Try to keep at least one slot free from the midgame on.

For the three reasons to reserve in a shorter form, our Splendor strategy guide has them in one list.