Shadow of the Sun takes place in the city of Hemloch. The long day is drawing to a close, and the scramble for power before the endless night has begun. Each player will play Minion Cards, in a variety of ways, to add his markers, or attempt to remove is opponent's markers, from the city's 4 districts.

Shadow of the Sun takes place over 8 (or sometimes fewer) Days (or Rounds). During each Day, a Day Card is revealed, each player receives a turn, and there is a Struggle of the revealed Day card. Each player's Markers represent his House's level of influence across the 4 Districts of Hemloch. Through the use of Minion Cards, players are able o add and remove Markers. The games ends at the end of any Day when there are no Day card remaining in the Day Deck, or 1 or more players have no Makers left to place.

Each Day, beginning with the Supreme Player, and continuing clockwise, each player takes 1 turn. Each player's turn is broken up into several steps, taking in this order:

DRAW - The player draws 2 card from the Minion deck and adds them to his hand. There is no maximum hand size.
BONUS - The player may draw 2 additional cards OR he may add 1 of his Markers to any District that does not yet have 1 of his Markers on it.
SPECIAL ABILITY - The player has access to 4 different Special Abilities. In order to us a Special Ability, the player must discard the appropriate cards from his hand. A player may use 1 Special Ability per turn.
ACTIONS - The players has a choice of performing 1 of the following 3 Actions: Bolster, Usurp, or Preen.
DRAW - Player draws 1 additional card.

THE STRUGGLE
At the end of each Day, after each player has taken his turn, there is a Struggle. The winner of the Struggle will be able to place a Marker, or Markers, on the District indicated on the current Day card. Each player, beginning with the player to the left of the Supreme Player, and continuing clockwise choose to participate in the Struggle or pass. Each player who participates chooses a Legion to play and they are revealed simultaneously. The player with the highest Legion Strength takes the current Day card and places it in his play area and places the Markers indicated on the Day card on the District also on the Day card. All Legions are discarded.

After the struggle, the game ends if there are no Day cards left or if any player has no Markers remaining. If the game does not end after the Struggle, each player discards down to 3 cards and then the discard pile and Minion deck are shuffled together. The Supremacy Card passes to the next player and a new Day begins.

Players score points based on the placement of their Markers within the Districts. The player with the highest score wins.