Aeon's End: The New Age FAQ
223 questions players ask · Updated Nov 10, 2026 · Full rulebook
The New Expedition Mode
- Are the STOP cards in the Expedition decks required to play?
- Can cards from other expansions be mixed into the scripted New Age expedition?
- Can you play a single game of The New Age without going through the expedition?
- How is each game of an expedition set up after the first one?
- How many battles is a standard expedition, and what happens after a lost battle?
- Must the expedition nemesis be fought in order of their tier number?
- Can an expedition be played with fewer than four mages, or with mages outside the starting set?
- During a normal expedition, can you gain new mages between battles?
- Can Shattered Dreams and The Ancients be mixed into the New Age expedition before playing Into the Wild's scripted expedition?
Object of the Game
Components
- Does a gap in card numbering mean a card is missing from The New Age?
- Where are the turn order cards and player reference cards in The New Age?
- Does Gygar come with Surge tokens, and what can replace them if they are missing?
- Does Cache Glass cost 3 or 4?
- How do Gygar's surge tokens work, and can other cards add them?
- Are the Wanderer's Dampening Pylons cards or tokens?
First Game Setup
Setup (Further Games)
- Do upgraded basic nemesis cards add to or replace the standard basic cards in a tier?
- Do you have to use upgraded basic nemesis cards in a normal game outside expedition mode?
- How many upgraded basic nemesis cards go into the nemesis deck in each expedition game?
- If a mage has no Sparks or Crystals in its starting deck, which card do you replace with a treasure?
- How do you tell which battle tier a nemesis belongs to?
- What turn order deck should a four-player game use?
- How does the Your Choice turn work in a three-player game?
- Do Level 1 treasure cards go in the starting deck or the starting hand, and does a spell replace a Spark?
- Are the deck and breaches reset between the battles of a New Age expedition?
- How many cards are in a true solo nemesis deck, and does its size change?
- How do you play a single New Age game outside expedition mode?
- How many treasures does each player and the group get after each battle of an expedition?
- Is it balanced to mix basic nemesis cards from different waves?
- What does Fenrix's Tier 1 nemesis deck look like for a four-mage game?
- Must the market setup between expedition battles use exactly 3 Crystals, 2 Artifacts and 4 Spells?
- Does the setup step to build a supply of nine player cards mean nine piles?
- How many tokens does the nemesis start with at setup?
- What is the Battle 1 deck when a card says to draw a nemesis from it?
Game FlowExpansion
- How does a card that draws an additional card at the end of your turn work?
- How do the 1/2 and 3/4 turn order cards work in a four-player game?
- What does Talix's Soaring Ash return to the turn order deck, and what happens if that deck is empty?
- When a player becomes exhausted and must destroy a breach, can they pick a closed breach over one further from opening?
How Cards WorkExpansion
- When a card says Gain 2 life, can you give that life to Gravehold or another mage?
- Do per-cast benefits like Aether Conduit apply twice to an Echo spell?
- If a prepped Echo spell is cast three times in one turn, do its Echo effects resolve six times?
- Can Galvanized Bauble destroy the spell you cast, and is its destroy effect optional?
- Can one spell's damage be split across two minions?
- Can you voluntarily discard a relic that is attached to a breach?
- When Chronal Arc is cast through Mystic Orb, does it go to the supply pile or back to your hand?
- How do you resolve Bayli's ability?
- Why does Bayli's power cast two prepped spells and then one, rather than three prepped spells?
- When you cast another player's spell that swaps, who gains the upgraded spell and where does the old one go?
- Does Prism of Destruction's bonus damage apply to a spell that deals no damage?
- Can Lost's Heart Forge destroy his upgraded Crystals and Sparks?
- Does an ally's Precision Magnifier add damage when you cast the ally's spell?
- Can you still use a card or ability for its optional second part when its first step cannot be done?
- Do damage bonuses like Pain Conduit's +2 apply to each separate damage instance and to each echo resolution?
- Can Galvanized Bauble be used to cast your own prepped spell?
- When you cast another player's prepped spell, what counts as yours and what stays with its owner?
- Can you choose an OR option on a player card, such as Caged Fire or Galvanized Bauble, when you cannot fully resolve it?
- Must you defeat the Pylons before you can defeat The Wanderer?
- Can a nemesis such as The Wanderer gain life above its starting total through unleash healing?
- Can you fight Haze Fiend or Maelstrom outside the Legacy campaign?
- Can you look through your draw pile or deck during a game?
- Can each instance of an Echo spell's damage hit a different target?
- Can you discard a card from hand without triggering its effect to avoid a cost?
- Can a breach have more than one Attach relic?
- Can an exhausted mage be healed, and what happens to a life gain effect that targets it?
- When Fenrix's claw persistent effect lets you deal damage to a player or Gravehold, who chooses?
- Does 'any player' in a card effect mean every player, or one player you choose?
- Does moving the Arachnos token back onto the 'gain a nemesis token' space give another nemesis token?
- Does the Wanderer's damage reduction to 1 apply per instance of damage or per round?
- Can Rhia's Planar Pocket aether buy three Glass-eyed Oracles in one turn?
- Do you need the New Age rulebook to play Into the Wild with War Eternal?
- Can a solo player cast a spell they just prepped with Sparrow's Aid?
- Can Mystic Orb or Rhia's Sublimate return a Spark or a Crystal to its supply pile?
- Can Rhia's Sublimate return a Tainted Jade without paying its 1 damage?
- How many times does Mage Devourer's damage penalty apply when a player deals damage to it?
- If an ally discards a Resonant Pearl in response, does the mage gain aether for each pearl played?
- Can Mazra's Research use her charges when no card with Mazra in its name is in hand?
- Does Heart Forge switch every Spark or Crystal in hand at once?
- Do abilities that let you prep two spells to one breach stack?
- Can an exhausted player take damage from an 'any player suffers X damage' effect?
- Does Magma Skinwing give you a Cracked Onyx for each instance of damage?
- Can multiple copies of Recurring Jasper all go to the top of the deck?
- Does the World Devourer count as a Nemesis for Imbued Smash's extra damage?
- If a card says any player must discard the top card of their deck and no one has a deck, or a player's deck is empty, what happens?
A Player's Turn in Detail
- Can Sahala prep two spells to her Celestial Breach, and does that require Link?
- If Brooch of Attunement gives charges when you cast a spell, can you repeat Drown in Flames with no charges, and when do the Brooch charges arrive?
- Does Curse of Aging end the game when your deck is too small to refill your hand?
- Can aether from Reverberating Shock be spent to clear a power card?
- When can you place Recurring Jasper on top of your deck, and can it be drawn and played again the same turn?
- Does Pain Conduit's damage bonus apply to every cast of Blast Sphere?
- Where does a discarded Pain Conduit go?
- Can damage to Maggoth's maggots and flies be split across several minions, and can one hit reach two rows?
- When do spells, bought cards, played gems and relics, and discarded cards go to the discard pile?
- When Furnacium discards cards to gain aether, do they go to the discard pile immediately, and can the same sparks count for two uses?
- Can you focus the same breach more than once in a turn, or focus a breach that is one step from open so it opens?
- Do you pay aether to focus a breach through a card effect, and can you focus another player's breach?
- Does Snap Ritual's while-prepped discard damage get the +1 breach damage bonus?
- How does Tethered Darts move between players when cast from an open breach III or IV?
- With Imbued Smash on a Reflective Conduit breach, can you choose the order of discarding the relic and a card for bonus damage?
- Does the when-cast effect from a card like Energized Conduit resolve before or after the spell's printed cast effects?
- Are Gygar's surge tokens removed once the spell that used them is cast?
- What does Gygar's High Tide second ability let you do?
- Can you prep a spell to a closed breach that was not focused this turn?
- Does Guru's discard ability or Monstrous Inferno deal full damage to The Wanderer?
- Does Sparkling Meteorite's focus or open-a-breach effect have to target Sahala's breach?
- Can Nook's Condense Aether destroy a gem or relic he played this turn?
- Is there a limit to how many spells you can cast in one turn?
- Does the Aether Conduit stop linking to a breach after the spell is cast?
- Can you prep and cast from Gygar's Ancient Breach before it has its surge tokens?
- Does Rock Launcher still deal damage if you discard the card instead of destroying it?
- Can an effect that destroys one of your breaches target a breach that is still closed?
- How do charges work, and how are they spent on a mage's ability?
- Can excess damage from one spell spill over to kill a second Bramble, and do two Brambles at 1 health both die to one spell?
- Can Sahala's ability prep spells during the casting phase and cast them right away?
The Nemesis's Turn in Detail
- When a Fenrix claw has no position token on it, must its damage go to Gravehold?
- When Maggoth unleashes and places two maggots, are both placed at once so the row effect triggers after both enter?
- If a player is exhausted in the middle of an attack, does exhaustion resolve before the rest of the attack?
- When a nemesis card has two effects, are they evaluated in written order, each as fully as possible?
- Does Maggoth's nest row effect trigger again when the row is refilled?
- When a Maggoth row is full and one more maggot is added, does the row event trigger again?
- When a Maggoth fly hatches, which maggot flips into a fly?
- Do you lose to Fenrix as soon as the claw deck becomes empty, or only when a claw must be drawn and the deck is empty?
- Is Fenrix's Hunting Claw a permanent claw that returns to the roster when killed?
- Can you move Fenrix's position token between two damage instances of one ability, or during the casting phase?
- Is there a limit on how many times you can move Fenrix's position token in one turn?
- Can you choose the Wanderer's pylon-heal unleash option when a pylon would heal only part of it, or when every pylon is at full life?
- Does World Devourer count as the Nemesis for card effects like Imbued Smash?
- In what order are nemesis cards resolved on the nemesis turn?
- What happens when you draw a claw from Fenrix's claw deck, which is face-down?
- Does damage left over from a nest mat row spill over to the nemesis?
- How does the Wanderer's persistent discard work when a player has five Crystals?
- How is the nemesis tier determined when Merciless Titan checks tier 2 or higher?
- Does a nemesis token count as a minion, and can it be removed from the nemesis mat?
- What happens when Curse of Aging makes you draw a card but your deck is empty?
- When during the turn does Curse of Aging's draw and damage take effect?
- If Enveloping Ooze's persistent discard hits Curse of Aging, do the curse effects get skipped?
- Do the Wanderer pylons' aether damage reductions stack?
- Does paying 7 aether remove all nemesis tokens from The Wailing?
- Do Fenrix's Crazed Whelps persistent effects activate on the turn they enter play?
- What does Ageless Walker's Burden of Knowledge make you exile?
- When a Power card's tokens are removed one at a time, do you resolve its effect each time, or only once when the last token is removed?
Expedition Terms & After the Game
- Are unchosen treasures banished between expedition battles, and can you change your treasure for each battle?
- What does it mean to banish a card during an expedition?
- Which treasure levels are available in each battle of an expedition?
- Do the Gravehold and nemesis damage rules still apply after a Tier 2 treasure says players do not lose when all are exhausted?
- What is the difference between destroying and banishing a card in an expedition?
- Do you keep your purchased cards in the Barracks between games of an expedition?
Variants
- Can you mix New Age with cards from the earlier Aeon's End waves, and what should stay separate?
- In true solo, do you use four or three player turn order cards?
- Can you play the expedition at a longer or shorter length than four battles?
- When a Nemesis effect targets any player and a different player, does the soloist take both parts?
- Does an exhausted solo mage still take damage from effects that hit the player with the lowest life?
After the First Expedition
- How many treasures does each player take after the first expedition game?
- Are market cards you do not pick after a battle removed for the rest of the expedition?
- How many treasures does each player get over an expedition?
- How is the market rebuilt for the next battle after winning an expedition battle?
- Why do I have only one randomizer card before the second battle of the first expedition?
- When should you read the End of Expedition rulebook?
- Can all Aeon's End content be mixed together and still use the expedition after the first box?
- Are treasures in an expedition chosen randomly or openly from the barracks?
- After the first scripted game, does the Mage left out of that game go into the Barracks?
Playing Another Expedition
- Does exhaustion carry over to later battles in an expedition, including destroyed breaches?
- In the scripted expedition, do you choose the market before or after seeing the nemesis?
- Can you play a single game from the middle of an expedition, such as game 2, without playing the earlier games?
- If you lose a battle in Expedition mode, do you randomize a new nemesis for the retry?
- What is kept in the Barracks between games of an expedition?
- When starting the next battle of an expedition, do the mage decks and market keep the cards added earlier?
- In a true solo expedition, how many upgraded basic nemesis cards go into tier 1 for battles 2 to 4?
- After a battle, must the supply piles be full again for the next battle?
Resetting The New Age
Aeon's End: Into the WildExpansion
- Does Inco's Massive Growth add 2 damage to each prepped Rose Thorns, or only once in total?
- Can Inco's Rose Thorns prepped in your main phase be cast right away using his ability?
- What does 'To the Walls' do when a nemesis power says the brambles rush the walls?
- Does Rose Thorn count toward the nine general supply items for any mage?
- Can Into the Wild be used with the base Aeon's End game?
- In the Into the Wild expedition, can you gain treasures between battles?
Aeon's End: Shattered DreamsExpansion
Aeon's End: Past and FutureExpansion
- When Consume Magic kills a minion from a consumption breach, does it get swapped before going under the breach?
- If a spell is cast without being discarded, can its swap effect still trigger when it kills a minion?
- Where does the city token go when Erythiza's Mega Breach opens?
- Does gaining a card from the develop zone trigger Manifold Container's extra gain?
- Can aether that can only be used to gain cards pay the develop cost of a card in the develop zone, or develop a relic or spell from the market?
- With a Void token on a breach, does each damage instance of a multi-hit spell get the bonus?
- After a card is swapped, can other effects still target it, such as Spectralite targeting Glowstone or Qu's Call of the Void?
- During a player's turn, is Erythiza's Mega Breach a breach for nemesis effects, and can it be destroyed?
- Can you cast spells prepped at the active Mega Breach even if another player prepped them?
- Does Treasure 3 (Beaded Crown) need exactly three cards costing 4 or more?
- How is breach adjacency determined for Rhys's breaches?
- Can a Link token or Link Conduit let you prep a second spell with a spell that fully occupies its breaches?
- Can you play Glowstone twice, for example through Unstable Prism, if it swaps after its first play?
- After finishing the Past and Future campaigns, can you mix its content with your other Aeon's End boxes?
- Does Past and Future need New Age or Outcasts to play?
- Does Consume Magic's swap trigger when it defeats a Tier 0 minion like the Infested Mutation Oozes?
- In what order do a breach life gain and a split-damage life cost resolve for Ohat and Ulgimor?
- Does a Past and Future mage that gains spells from the supply need each spell to cost five aether or less, or the two combined?
- Does Echo from multiple Apocalypse spells stack on one spell?
- Can Bayli's Flaming Aura and Force Bubble be looped on Breach III for infinite damage?
- Why does Bayli's Flaming Aura prep a spell from your hand rather than from your discard pile?
- Is Past and Future compatible with The Descent?
- Can Past and Future be played with only Legacy of Gravehold?
- Can split damage from Tethered Smith be divided across several lines of Infested Mutation globules?
- Can Past and Future nemeses be paired with basic nemesis cards from other boxes?
- Which mages from the Past and Future small expansions can be used, and when?
- Does gaining a card from the Develop zone through another effect count as Developing it?
- How does Dorian's while-prepped starter spell interact with cards that have a develop cost?
- Is the bottom row of the Past 3 nemesis's Miasma track one 10-slot track or two separate tracks?
- Does gaining Propel swap it with Gather Force right away?
- When Lily casts a minion as a spell, where does it go afterward?
- Why can't a minion act on the turn it comes into play under Herald of the End?
- Can a treasure return a card you played this turn from the discard pile before you draw?
- Are a card's effects still active after you swap it out for another card?
- How do Naftir's link tokens work when casting spells from a linked breach?
- For the Past fourth enemy, where is the city token placed when the corruption track has no matching space?
- Which battle deck are the two new Past and Future nemeses in?
- Can Past and Future be used without expeditions, or with a core box other than New Age?