Way of the Panda is a worker-placement game in which players control three different figures — monk, merchant, and warrior — on a board. With a worker-placement mechanism, the players choose their action to move around the board, build buildings, train their character in fighting, and gain wisdom (which nets victory points at game's end and serves as a multiplier), but they also have to pay action points to choose these actions. If they choose stronger actions, they must pay more and cannot go back on the action board (as in Egizia).

The players train their characters and fight against the evil guys on each street on the map. Also, they construct buildings to try to connect north and south with their own streets.