Apiary FAQ
210 questions players ask · Updated Nov 11, 2026 · Full rulebook
Components
Setup
- How is the first player chosen at setup?
- Where do players start on the Victory Point track at setup?
- Do the Cecro faction's starting Recruit tiles trigger the hive mat build bonus?
- Can you play Apiary without faction abilities?
- In solo play, where do the Automa and your score markers start?
- For the starter factions' adjacency bonuses, does the whole three-hex faction piece count or only the faction hex?
- Do Ria and Capen trigger when a worker is moved onto an occupied space, not only when it is bumped off the board?
- Does Capen's upgraded power trigger on moves as well as bumps?
- In a 2-player game, do you use all three hibernation areas?
- Can you build a new tile over your starting tile?
- Can new tiles be placed next to any of the three starting hexes on the faction tile?
Gameplay
- Can you decline a benefit you gain from a tile, an action or another player's dance?
- Does a strength-4 worker hibernate when a card retrieves it without increasing its strength?
- Why would a bumped worker go to the landing area instead of your active pool?
- Do workers in the landing area gain strength and farm income when you retrieve?
- Can a bumped or retrieved strength-4 worker go to the landing area instead of hibernating?
- When can you play seed cards around a worker placement or retrieval?
- What happens if you start your turn with no active workers?
- Can the Arti faction raise a strength-4 worker to strength 5?
- When does the Arti strength change apply, and does it last?
- If you already have four active workers, can you still gain another worker from Grow or a Gain 1 worker space?
- What does 'permanently increase or decrease the strength of a worker' mean on Seed cards 5 and 18?
- Why would you apply -1 strength to one of your workers?
- If your last worker hibernates during your turn, do you still get the free worker from the Empty Hive rule?
- Can you bump your own worker?
- Is there a limit on how many seed cards you can play in one turn?
- If a strength-4 worker gets +1 strength from a farm or card, does it hibernate immediately?
- Can you chain seed cards that pay for a second worker in one turn?
- When a Planet Perale effect gives a farm tile's +1 worker-strength icon, which worker gets the +1?
- What counts as an active worker?
- Can you take a retrieve turn when your only workers are in your active pool?
- Can a +1 or -1 strength effect apply to any of your active workers?
- How do you choose Dance tokens when a dance needs them?
- Can one player teach more than one dance in a game?
- If a taught dance is used twice, do you pay its cost twice?
- If a strength-4 explore bonus teaches a dance after none are left, can you perform a dance twice?
- In what order do end-of-turn steps happen: seed cards, resource discard, and the tile row refill?
- Can Seed card 39's -1 wax discount apply to more than one development tile in a turn?
- If a player cannot place a farm drafted by Seed card 37, can they keep it in reserve?
- Is Seed card 3's QueenShip move a free action, or does it use your turn's action?
- What does the any-basic-resource icon on a seed card mean?
- What does Seed card 1 give when a planet is explored?
- Can Iber's recall use a worker in the landing area, and does it trigger income?
- Can an Explore token that makes you downgrade a worker target any of your workers?
- Is there a limit on planting identical seed cards, such as two that each score per Explore token?
Hibernation comb
- What happens to an Automa hibernation token when the Hibernation Comb has no space on its last turn?
- What happens when a worker must hibernate but no pod is free, and does an unplaced token count at game end?
- How does the solo Automa choose the hibernation sector for its token?
- Does placing a Graft hibernation pod or moving a pod with Seed card 21 count as hibernating for tiles that reward hibernation?
- Can Insulation move the same hibernation token more than once?
- Can Insulation move tokens from your docking mat, or bump another player's hibernating token?
- Can you refresh the Advance tile rows on your own turn, or only through the Hibernation Comb?
- Can a worker bumped into hibernation be grown back on the same turn?
- When a bump sends your worker into hibernation and the benefit refreshes the Advance tiles, when does the refresh happen?
- Once a strength-4 worker hibernates, is it gone for good?
- How do you get a hibernated worker back into play?
- If you are the only player with a hibernation token in a sector, do you also get the second-place points?
- Does second place in a Hibernation Comb sector score points?
- In a 2-player game, are all four spots of the three-player-only sector removed, or only the Queen's Favor spot?
Actions
- Does retrieving a strength-4 worker with the Pharmacist ability collect farm income?
- Can Pharmacist retrieve the same worker you just placed for the Research action?
- When you buy a tile with a seed card, do you build it immediately?
- Can Zingi's strength-4 ability be used after you have already taught a dance?
- Can you use the Advance action to buy a tile when your hive has no place to build it?
- Does a seed card that buys a tile require you to take an action?
- Can you take the Grow action only to get the free strength-1 worker from the Nurse recruit?
- Can you spend your last point to take the Dance of the Future?
- Does the Chemist discount apply when you convert using a dance?
- When a card says to gain an Explore token without exploring, is the planet placed face-up or face-down?
- When you gain an Explore token from a card, do you also get its printed benefit?
- Can Orientation explore the planet where the QueenShip started?
- Can one dance give you multiple conversions or cards in a single action?
- Can you teach the same dance twice in a solo game?
- Can Planet Asteria's income be claimed from the same farm more than once?
- When you explore a planet with a dotted resource space, do you gain the resource you placed there?
- Does the Explore token showing fiber, water and pollen give one of them or all three?
- When a seed card takes a tile from the Advance offer, do you slide and refill the offer now or at the end of your turn?
- Can you use a dance you just taught with the Convert action in the same turn?
- How does Zingi's strength-4 'teach a dance and use it twice' ability work?
- If a tile says build for free without naming a source, can you take it from the face-up offer, and where do reserve tiles come from?
- If you cannot or decline to build a tile gained from seed card 37, what happens to it?
- Does using a worker's strength on the Grow action reduce that worker's strength?
- Can a strength-4 worker on Grow spend four resources to get two frames in one turn?
- Does seed card 27's second worker require that you already placed a worker this turn?
- Can seed card 25 place wax or honey tokens on planets?
- If seed card 25 takes a resource off a planet, is it replaced?
- Does the Utel faction's Explore bonus trigger on every Explore action, or only when it reaches a new planet?
- When a seed card or recruit lets you take an adjacent Explore token, do you still reveal a planet tile on that space?
- Does Seed Card 3's extra Explore give a second strength-4 bonus when the QueenShip moves onto a level-4 planet?
- Can a seed card's effect be repeated, such as paying pollen for several workers, and does gaining a worker count as a retrieve?
- In a solo game, does teaching a dance through Seed Card 4 give 4 Queen's Favor?
- Can Seed Card 4's conversion be used if you have already taught a dance?
- How many frames can one Grow action buy?
- Can you create Dance of the Future for 1 VP just to gain Queen's Favor from your own dance?
- Can Seed Card 2's +2 strength be added after the worker's action has already resolved?
- Does a worker that reaches strength 4 only because of a seed card get the strength-4 bonus?
- Does Seed Card 39's one-time purchase place the development straight into your hive?
- Can a reserved tile be placed for free, and can one Advance action place several tiles, including reserved ones?
- Does a cost discount apply to the purchase price, so a tile can be taken for free when the discount brings it to zero?
- Can you collect farm income from the same farm twice when retrieving several workers?
- Can Seed card 28's one-time strength boost let a 1-3 strength worker use the Carve action?
- Do you draw seed cards when you build a frame with two seed icons on its back?
- Can you place a worker that performs only the strength-4 bonus without doing any part of the main action?
- Does the +1 space on the Advance action change a worker's strength, or make a strength-4 worker hibernate?
- If you perform Grow with a strength-4 worker, can you upgrade your faction before or after growing?
- When a strength-4 worker is pushed onto the Explore action, what does the Automa do?
- Does the Automa gain strength when it retrieves a worker?
- Which bee does the Automa bump when placing on an Advance space with two spots?
- For the Automa, does a strength-4 benefit need a strength-4 total on the action, or just a strength-4 worker?
- For the Automa's Carve 2 action, does the number mean the second tile along the arrow?
Resources
- What does the conversion arrow icon mean?
- If a hive hex gives a resource but your storage is full, do you still gain it?
- Can you rearrange resources already in storage to make room for newly gained ones during your turn?
- If you gain resources outside your turn and your storage is full, what happens to them?
- Can you use or move resources you gained this turn before they are stored in your hive?
- Can you play seed cards to gain a basic resource each and then let the overflow give Queen's Favor?
- Does rearranging resources in your hive let you exchange one resource type for another?
- What happens to the resources on a farm that a seed card swaps out?
- Do Explore Tokens have uses beyond the benefit you get for exploring?
- When an Explore Token lets you draw two seed cards, do you keep both?
- When do I have to store resources if I play CASI?
Tile types
- Can the Engineer's wax discount reduce a development tile's cost to zero?
- Which hexes of the starting tile count for adjacency and scoring?
- Can your first built tile touch a starting tile hex without touching the faction tile hex?
- Do the three starting tiles count toward the Lama faction's gain-per-tile bonus?
- Can a seed card make you discard your faction tile for 3 VP?
- Does Ria's Queen's Favor trigger when a Ria worker bumps your worker, or only when it moves?
- Does Ligu's double effect refresh the tile row between the two placements of a development tile?
- Does Ligu's doubling apply when Royal Jelly reactivates a Development?
- If a Development is moved next to the Ligu space with Seed Card E48, do its abilities trigger?
- For Royal Jelly, must the two reactivated Developments be adjacent to each other or to the Royal Jelly tile?
- Does moving a tile with Seed Card 48 or 49 retrigger Development effects?
- Can you use CASI's anytime action between Propolis conversions?
- When Capen's ability triggers after moving an opponent's worker, can you convert a resource gained in that same action?
- Does Iber's recall trigger the Agriculturalist's extra income?
- Do extra-income abilities apply when a retrieve collects no farm income?
- Can the Agriculturalist's extra income come from a farm I already collected from this retrieve?
- Can Pollen Patty retrieve a strength-4 worker, take its farm income, and place it back as an active worker?
- Does Pollen Patty pay its 2 farm income if you retrieve only one worker or none?
- Do Planet Perale's strength-4 action and Genetic Engineer stack on the same farm?
- Where does Flight Path take Explore tokens from?
- Can you use the Biochemist exchange in the middle of a gather action?
- Do a Recruit tile's ongoing effects apply as soon as you gain it?
- Does a farm tile's plus-one icon give a new worker or add strength to a worker?
- What does the income icon on a Farm tile showing 2 VP and a Queen's Favor mean?
- If you already have all your workers, do you still get the +1 worker bonus from a hive hex?
- When a tile lets you gain workers, where do they come from and how are they set?
- If you gain the Nurse recruit during a Grow action, does its free-worker effect apply on that same action?
- Does the Engineer's discount apply to reserved development tiles?
- Do reserved tiles count as face-up?
- Does Apiculture let you reserve three tiles of any mix, or all face-up tiles of each type?
- How many seed card slots do frames unlock, and can you plant a seed card without an open slot?
- Can a frame be placed next to an empty hive hex, or hang off the edge of the hive mat?
- Can you take Crop Rotation if only one hive space is open?
- Can you use Hybridization's farm placements with resources gained from placing each farm?
- Does Hybridization let you add three farms from the stack for one basic resource each?
- Does Genetic Engineer trigger if you gain a farm but cannot place it?
- Does Genetic Engineer trigger on farms gained by any method, not just the Advance action?
- Does the Expansion carve count tiles built on frames, and does it count itself?
- What is the difference between the Expansion carve and the Cluster carve?
- How is the Exchange carving scored?
- When an Exchange carving copies Discovery, whose Explore Tokens count?
- Can you go below zero points to use the Exchange carve tile?
- Is there a limit on how many victory points a carve tile can give?
- Is the Proliferation carve tile worth 6 or 7 VP?
- Can Visah's Carve draw come from the leftover carve tiles in the box?
- Does a frame next to a starting faction tile count as adjacent to the faction ability?
Queen's favor track
- What happens if you gain Queen's Favor after your marker is already at the top of the track?
- Does a faction power that gains Queen's Favor when your worker is bumped still apply when the track is already maxed?
- Can you rearrange resources in your hive to force overflow and gain Queen's Favor?
- When a farm's income shows the Queen's Favor icon, must you pay a resource to move the Favor token?
- When scoring Queen's Favor, do you need to stop exactly on a value space?
- Is discarding resources for Queen's Favor a viable strategy?
- Do you get Queen's Favor when your own dance is used?
- What do the crown symbols on a dance mean?
End of game and scoring
- Does the Retinue carving double the Queen's Favor points you score?
- How many points does the Retinue tile score: one per space on the Queen's Favor track?
- After the end game is triggered, how many final turns does each player get?
- When a bump fills the last Hibernation spot, who triggers the end of the game and who gets the final turn?
- If the game ends while all your workers are on the board, what is your final turn?
- Does Pomon's end-game scoring include farms next to the reserve hexes?
- Does Brood Rearing's 2 VP per active worker count workers in the Grow area?
- Does Education score adjacent Developments again when Upgraded Ligu doubles them?
- Can a Harvest tile count itself as adjacent to another tile of its own type?
- What counts as a 'remaining bee' for Seed Card 10's endgame points?
- How many points do the starting hive mat and each frame score at the end of the game?
- Can one resource count toward several endgame scoring effects?
- Does a hibernation token that cannot fit in the Hibernation Comb count for Memorial points?
- How does Longevity Carving score unused hibernation tokens?
- Can a player with zero of a counted item score for most, or tie for most, at end of game?
Solo play (Automa)
- How does Automa's gain-and-remove step work for each tile type?
- Does Automa still take the Carve action when no carving tiles remain?
- Does the board's +1 strength bonus apply to Automa's Advance action?
- When you gain the Exchange carving in solo play, which carving do you copy?
- Can Seed Card 47's worker changes affect opponents' workers?
- What does 'Carve 2' mean on an Automa card?
- How does Automa's 'if G/Y = 0' condition work?
Apiary: Expanding the HiveExpansion
- Can an explore token's +1 or -1 strength effect target any worker you control?
- When must you use an explore token's strength change?
- Does the Scientist's free wax trigger from Convert actions on the Layens hive mat?
- Does the Scientist give one free wax for each Convert action taken on a turn?
- With Expanding the Hive, can you keep one of the original frames in the mix with the new frames?
- With Expanding the Hive, can you gain more explore tokens than the eleven on the board?
- With Expanding the Hive, can the Pharmacist recall the same worker you just placed on Research?
- When teaching an Expanding the Hive dance in a solo game, do you gain 4 Queen's Favor or the dance's victory points?
- Can the Navigator take an Explore Token from the pile when no face-up tokens remain?
- Does the Astronomer recruit let you take any explore token, or only an adjacent one?
- Can the Hexagon's reserved carve tile be built during a Carve or Advance action?