In Darjeeling, players embark on a strategic journey through the world of tea, competing to collect and ship the freshest and most valued varieties. The game unfolds across two main board areas. In the first, a grid represents tea plantations, with squares containing half-crates of four distinct varieties. Each player moves their marker, collecting one half-crate per turn, following simple but competitive movement rules to secure the best spaces. When a player accumulates enough halves of a single color to form whole crates, they can make a tea shipment.

Shipments yield victory points in three crucial ways. First, there's a 'demand' bonus that varies based on how long it's been since that variety was last shipped, potentially up to 6 VPs. Second, shipments of at least four crates grant a flat bonus of 1 VP per crate. Most pivotally, however, are the VPs awarded at the beginning of subsequent turns, depending on your shipment's position on a 'barge' of recent shipments. Newer shipments sit at the top of the column and pay higher VP multipliers, but are pushed down as other players make their own shipments. This creates a constant race and tension among players, who are incentivized to make shipments, even smaller ones, to keep their teas at the top and deny points to opponents. The game ends as soon as a player reaches 100 victory points, requiring constant vigilance to prevent a runaway leader.