How to Play Caravan: The Complete Beginner's Guide

Caravan is a two-player card game built around the tension of the spice market. You’re a merchant competing against a rival for the most valuable collection of spices before the bazaar closes. Each turn you’re making small decisions — which card to take, which to sell, when to block your opponent — but those small decisions compound into either a commanding lead or a desperate scramble. It’s one of the most accessible games on the Oxolot platform and one of the most satisfying once you understand its rhythms.

This guide covers everything you need to start playing: the full rules, turn structure, card types, and your first strategic pointers.

The Goal of Caravan

The objective is straightforward: at the end of the game, the player who has collected the most valuable set of spice cards wins. Value is determined by the types and combinations of spices you’ve gathered — certain spice combinations score bonus points, and rare spice cards are worth significantly more than common ones.

The challenge is that both players are drawing from the same central market display, and the card you leave behind is always available for your opponent to take.

Components and Setup

Caravan is played with a deck of spice cards, each showing one or more spice types and a point value. At the start of a game, a number of cards are laid face-up in the center of the table — this is the market. Players share a common draw pile that feeds the market throughout the game.

Each player begins with a hand of four cards and an empty collection area. Your collection grows throughout the game as you acquire cards; your hand is what you trade from.

How a Turn Works

On your turn, you take one of the following actions:

Take from the Market — Choose one face-up card from the market and add it to your hand. This is the most common action. The market is immediately refilled from the draw pile.

Sell a Card — Remove a card from your hand by placing it face-down in your discard. You receive gold tokens equal to the card’s listed value. Gold is spent to buy cards later.

Buy from the Market — Spend gold tokens to acquire a card from the market directly into your collection (not your hand). Cards acquired this way are locked in — they count toward your final score.

Trade — Some cards let you trade multiple cards from your hand for a single market card. Trades are powerful because they let you acquire high-value cards you might not be able to afford otherwise, but they thin your hand significantly.

After your action, your turn ends and your opponent plays.

Card Types

Common Spice Cards — The bulk of the deck. These show one spice type and a modest point value. They’re the building blocks of most collections but rarely win games alone.

Rare Spice Cards — Higher point value, one spice type. These are the cards both players are usually competing most aggressively to acquire.

Multi-Spice Cards — Cards showing two or three spice types. These are powerful because they contribute to multiple scoring combinations simultaneously.

Caravan Cards — Special event cards that trigger immediate effects when acquired, such as adding gold, blocking your opponent’s next action, or adding bonus cards to the market.

Scoring and End of Game

The game ends when the draw pile is exhausted and the market has been cleared (or reduced below a threshold — the exact end condition is displayed in-game). Players then count their collections.

Scoring works as follows:

• Base points: the point value shown on each card you’ve collected
• Combination bonuses: sets of matching or complementary spice types score additional bonus points
• Caravan bonuses: some Caravan event cards grant end-game bonuses if you met their conditions

The player with the higher total wins. Ties go to the player with the most remaining gold.

Your First Few Games: What to Focus On

Don’t hoard your hand. New players often build up a large hand without spending. The cards in your hand don’t score — only cards in your collection count. Get cards into your collection regularly.

Watch the market. Before deciding what to take, look at what’s available and think about what your opponent will want. Sometimes the best move is taking a card you don’t need simply to prevent your opponent from getting it.

Gold is a resource, not a reward. Selling cards earns gold, and gold lets you buy. Think of it as a conversion system: you’re converting low-value cards from your hand into the opportunity to acquire high-value cards from the market.

Multi-spice cards are usually worth their higher cost. A card that contributes to two scoring combinations is often better than two single-spice cards even if the face value is similar.

Track what your opponent is building. If you can see they’re collecting a particular spice type, you know which market cards to prioritize taking before them — even if you don’t need those cards for your own strategy.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Taking every card that appears — Be selective. Not every card that hits the market belongs in your collection. Taking low-value filler clogs your hand and delays the acquisitions that actually matter.

Forgetting Caravan event cards — New players sometimes ignore Caravan cards because their point values look modest. The effects matter. A Caravan card that blocks an opponent’s action can be worth far more than its face value if timed correctly.

Neglecting gold generation — Running out of gold at the wrong moment means missing the market card you’ve been waiting for. Keep some gold in reserve.

Playing too predictably — If your opponent can read your strategy four turns out, they’ll disrupt it. Occasionally take a card that’s slightly off your plan just to maintain some ambiguity.

Ready to Play

The best way to learn Caravan is to play it. The mechanics click quickly once you’re in an actual game, and the strategy starts revealing itself within a few sessions. Head to oxolot.io, start a game of Caravan, and keep this guide handy for your first few hands.

Once you’ve got the basics down, check out our strategy guide for intermediate and advanced Caravan tactics.