A Solo Walk Along The One Hundred Torii: Diverging Paths
Step off of the main path to discover the sights surrounding beautiful shrines found in The One Hundred Torii: Diverging Paths.
As I enjoyed my time playing against Onatsu in The One Hundred Torii, I knew that I wanted to try my skills with all of the added content. It wasn’t long before I was ready to explore everything in The One Hundred Torii: Diverging Paths! New strategies seemed apparent right from the start, and I could tell Onatsu was going to be a challenge. Back to the garden!
Disclaimer
I work for the publisher and had a small part in finalizing the rulebook. I bought the base game and expansions for my own personal solo plays, but if you follow along, this sort of disclaimer always accompanies games from this publisher.
Game Overview
Game Name: The One Hundred Torii
Publication Year: 2020
Designer: Scott Caputo
Artist: Vincent Dutrait
Publisher: Pencil First Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Gameplay is all about building and traveling down the paths found in a Japanese garden, collecting tokens that mark the various sights along the way. With this expansion, shrines offer multiple ways to play, which can all be mixed and matched! New characters might even be discovered…
First Play
February 5, 2020
Complexity
2
Latest Play
January 24, 2026
Expansions
5
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
28
Play Time
30 Minutes
High Score
129
Game Area
36" x 22"
Low Score
17
A Few New Characters
Talk about expansion content! In my last post, I had a few Dalmatians join in the fun. The rest of them appeared!
Although I have a lot of tiny pieces in my Calico Critters collection, apparently there is no miniature rendering of what I needed… Torii gates! These were the best I could do.
Not too bad. I was thrilled to dig into the expansion rules, which allow everything to be added in a modular manner.
The gambler and pilgrim characters work on their own, and the 4 shrines offer lots of possibilities. I decided to start by playing each one individually to get an idea of gameplay.
Fushimi Inari Shrine
With a fairly straightforward wild token mechanic, the Fushimi Inari shrine is the recommended starting point.
It’s worth noting that when playing with individual shrines, Onatsu becomes much easier to defeat at first. That was the case here… I was pretty aggressive, and it paid off!
Shrines offer benefits by scoring paths that surround them. No longer is a single path in one direction the ideal, but it’s more about trying to loop around the various sides.
Also, note the pilgrim’s bridge tiles. These were awesome, not just for scoring but also for the aesthetics. So pretty!
New Onatsu Tiles
Although there are new rules to learn with each shrine, the solo mode piece is pretty simple. Effectively, a tile goes above 2 columns of Onatsu’s board and offer an ability.
In this example, the Fushimi Inari shrine was in play. Any tiles placed in the lantern or lotus columns gave her a small token. For her bonus, only 4 were needed for a large token.
Feeling extra clever, I only handed over 3 tiles in these columns during this play, so Onatsu scored nothing!
The samurai was also very useful, and I had a great time working out the best way to use all 7 characters.
Nonomiya Shrine
At the next difficulty level, I headed off to the Nonomiya shrine. This utilizes a deck of cards with special criteria to complete for additional victory points. So much green!
On the one hand, this gave me new scoring opportunities and made me focus on Onatsu’s character tiles more.
However, I felt like this added a lot of overhead for me. With my paths all around the shrine, I picked up enough cards to empty the deck, so I had to flip through a lot each turn.
Completing them sometimes made sense, or sometimes felt counter-intuitive to my other strategies. Not my top pick.
Enjoying Modular, Mix-and-Match Expansions
Expansion content encompasses a wide range of purposes, and it isn’t easy to always classify them all. But in this case, I felt like labeling these characters and shrines as modular or mix-and-match seemed accurate. It’s true: There are a lot of choices in terms of what to add, but they can typically be used on their own or together in many combinations.
The new gambler and pilgrim characters create new opportunities. With just the base game, it’s possible to hire each character twice by the end of the game. But with this addition, that’s no longer possible in most cases. More limitations! Yet I mean that in a good way: Being able to do everything I want to do can feel boring, devoid of a fun challenge.
Even more than the characters, the 4 shrines add even more options. Just playing with a single one offers 4 different ways to play, all with interesting strategies. In the solo mode, it’s also possible to play with either 2 or 3 shrines at once, thereby increasing the difficulty against Onatsu. I really enjoy this model of expansion content, as I get to discover my favorites!
To-Ji Temple Shrine
Despite my hesitation over the cards with the Nonomiya shrine, I had a lot more fun with the To-Ji Temple shrine!
A single stack of cards is used in the solo mode. These are earned in ascending order. The lower values have abilities, while the high values offer victory points.
However, activating abilities means that all of the cards must be returned, and there is a sort of keep-away mechanic with Onatsu. She gains one… And that’s it!
There was more to think about, yet I had a lot of fun adding in this shrine. It might have been my favorite, until…
Kitano Shrine
Enter the Kitano shrine! This is the most complex and difficult to use in the solo mode, although I’ll note that it really isn’t that bad. Just a very different strategic layer.
Every corner of the shrine is open to offerings, represented by a stack of small tokens. To take a previously claimed corner, a larger offering must be added. Area control!
Well, not exactly, but those corners are lucrative at game end. I had to play a few times against Onatsu. Tricky!
This one adds a very different way to play, but it was easily my favorite. Plus, hurray for these awesome Kitano tokens!
Session Overview
Play Number: 19-24
Expansion: The One Hundred Torii: Diverging Paths
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Easy, Medium, & Hard Difficulty Levels
Outcome: 4 Wins & 2 Losses
Take that, Onatsu! I had to play a few times with some of the shrines to pull off a victory, but it happened. This final play was pretty excellent, too, since I prevented Onatsu from doing much of anything… And that score tied her lowest ever. Nemesis defeated! But I’m not done yet, as I want to play with combined shrines and some mini-expansions.
%
20 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
10
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
7
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- Each shrine offers very unique mechanics, allowing favorites to arise amidst all of the new strategic layers.
- Managing the solo opponent requires minimal rules, yet choosing which tiles to give up is a thoughtful sequence.
- The large shrine tiles make sense from a mechanical standpoint and also add a beautiful visual element.
- Following the different paths is visually straightforward with the excellent contrast against the greenery.
- New characters add more options, and in particular, the pilgrim’s bridge tiles introduce excellent choices.
- Choosing which shrines to play with adds a lot of variety, as they may be enjoyed individually or in combination.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Tracking the scoring conditions included with the Nonomiya shrine cards can feel a little tedious at times.
- Finding the different icons can sometimes be a little tricky to pick out, particularly in areas with a lot of nearby tiles.
- Onatsu can feel quite easy to win against with some shrines, although this can be mitigated by using several at once.
- Collecting more small tokens after earning the 10-point large token can lead to a sizable pile of unusable tokens.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at the beginner difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the intermediate difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the expert difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game with each expansion shrine. (4/4)
Continue the Conversation
What do you like the most about The One Hundred Torii? Do you have a favorite shrine or other aspect of the expansion? I had wondered if the base game would feel a little stale playing solo so many times, but this expansion certainly adds all kinds of possibilities! Discovering the strategic nuances was a lot of fun, and I still have more to look forward to!
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