Race your golems across the board. Be the first to move one into your opponent's back row!
Shapes: Ω Moon, Χ Sand, Λ Peak
Colors: White, Orange, Blue
Mirror: ◇ (copies the resting glyph)
Inara is a contest of skillful positioning and adaptation to ever shifting resources. There is no random chance once the game has started and no hidden information.
Race your golems across the board and be the first to move one beyond the end of the board into your opponent's back row. Victory is yours if you succeed before they do!
Players alternate turns. At the start of your turn, you have 3 glyphs in hand and 1 resting. You must take an action—you may not pass.
Each square can hold at most one golem or shadow.
The game ends immediately when one player moves a golem into their opponent's first row. That player wins!
If a player cannot take any valid action (no glyphs allow movement or reactivation), the game ends in a draw.
Shapes: Ω Moon, Χ Sand, Λ Peak
Colors: White, Orange, Blue
Mirror: ◇ (copies the resting glyph)
Please enjoy playing Inara and mastering its strategy.
— James Kuang, 2025
Inara is a turn-based two-player game of abstract strategy.
Your goal: Be the first to reach your opponent's side of the board with just one of your golems.
The game is played on an 8×8 checkered board with two players sitting across from each other.
There are 7 glyphs (3 colors, 3 shapes, and a mirror), as well as 9 golems for each player.
Each golem has 2 traits (a color and a shape) that match the glyphs:
Decide who will go first. You may play timed or untimed.
As Dark, you control the dark pieces as the starting player. Your Light opponent takes the light pieces.
Dark pieces move on light squares; light pieces move on dark squares.
Take the glyphs and give each player 3 randomly as their starting hands. The leftover glyph becomes the first player's resting glyph.
Each player has 9 golems. Randomly place 8 of them — one on each starting square in your first two rows. Your remaining golem is dismantled and kept in your supply as a mask.
Every turn, prime a glyph to perform one action.
Actions: Step, Jump, or Reactivate
The golem performing that action must match the glyph by shape or color. The mirror glyph ◇ lets you copy the resting glyph on your turn.
Once you have performed that action, the glyph you primed goes to your opponent as their resting glyph. You pick up your resting glyph into your hand.
Warning: If a golem doesn't match any glyph in your hand, it cannot perform any actions that turn!
Select different glyphs and golems to see how they match:
Orthogonal Step: Move exactly 2 squares in a straight line (N/S/E/W). The middle square must be empty.
Diagonal Step: Move exactly 1 square diagonally.
Complete all steps to continue:
Jump diagonally over a friendly piece to land on the empty square just beyond it.
You cannot jump over enemies or empty squares.
Jump forward over one piece.
You can jump over multiple contiguous pieces in a single hop. Land on the first empty square beyond them all.
Jump over two or more pieces at once.
After landing, you may continue jumping in any diagonal direction if another friendly piece is adjacent. All jumps happen in one turn!
Use your shadows as stepping stones. Make a chain jump with 2 or more hops!
Dark wins by reaching row 1 (Light's back row).
Light wins by reaching row 8 (Dark's back row).
The first player to land a golem on their opponent's back row wins immediately!
Reach the top row to win!
Capture your opponent's pieces by surrounding them on two opposite sides between two of your pieces.
You must create this "sandwich" on your turn with the golem you moved or reactivated.
The golem you activated will only capture another golem if it does NOT match the target golem by shape or color.
Sandwich the light piece to capture it.
You can capture multiple pieces in one move if you sandwich them in different directions.
But remember: pieces that share a trait (shape or color) with your moving piece are immune to capture!
Capture two pieces at once. Notice the third piece is immune!
You can safely move between enemy pieces if your piece shares a trait with at least one of them.
This immunity works both ways — you can't capture them, but they can't capture you either!
Move between the enemy pieces without being captured.
After moving, you may leave a shadow on your vacated square by clicking the shadow button before moving.
Shadows act as stepping stones for diagonal jumps and block enemy movement paths.
Note: Dark cannot place shadows until Light has placed one first.
Warning: If ANY of your shadows is captured, ALL your shadows are removed!
The shadow toggle is already on. Move to leave a shadow behind!
Instead of moving, you can reactivate a captured piece:
Select the right glyph and reactivate the mask onto the shadow.
When you reactivate a golem, it can capture enemy pieces just like a regular move!
The reactivated golem captures any adjacent enemy pieces it sandwiches (that don't share a trait).
Reactivate your mask to capture the enemy piece.
You now know the essentials of Inara:
Draw: If none of your glyphs allow you to move or reactivate, the game ends in a draw.
Dark Wins!
What would you like to do?
Dark offers a draw. Light, do you accept?
A game of abstract strategy
Share this link with your opponent:
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