Aquatica FAQ
167 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup and Components
- When does King Cai the Nimble take effect: before turn 1, or during a normal turn?
- How do Herbert the Forceful and Fancelot the Alluring work at the start of the game?
- Is there any setup or rule difference in a 2-player game?
- How many Ocean character cards are in the base game?
- Do King cards go into your starting hand and get played like other character cards?
- How do I tell the new versions of Adela the Liberator and Sol the Great from the old ones?
Basic Concepts
- What counts as an additional action in Aquatica, and what does the + symbol mean?
- Can you use resources from two different depths of the same location card during one main action?
- Can you buy, conquer or recruit with coins or power from depths and Mantas without playing a character card?
- Can you flip power Mantas, then use a card that unflips all your Mantas, and reuse that power for a conquer?
- Is the scoring pile secret or public in Aquatica?
- Can you combine coins or power from several locations and Mantas to pay for one buy or conquer?
- Can you use more than one Manta to pay for the same buy or conquer?
- Do you need a score action to score a fully raised location?
- When you recruit a character card, does it go to your hand or to your discard pile?
- How much conquer power does Manta's Leader give?
- Can power from location depths or a +2 power bonus start a conquest on its own?
- Can you overpay, or raise or flip something just to gain coins or power you will not spend?
- Are leftover coins or power kept after paying, or can they fund a second purchase in the same action?
- Is a character card you have just played counted as in your hand, in your discard pile, or neither?
How to Play
- Can you interrupt your main action to use an additional action, such as a raise, score or Manta, in the middle of it?
- What counts as a main action: the whole text of a character card, or each separate sentence?
- Can you play a card when none of its actions can be used?
- If you cannot complete all of a character card's effects, can you still play it?
- Must you perform every action on a character card, and in the order printed?
- If your card tells an opponent to take an action, such as Researcher or Turtle the Treasurer, must they do it?
- Must you scout before conquering with the Sea Horse card?
- After scouting with Sea Horse, must you conquer a location you could afford?
- Is scouting optional in Aquatica?
- What are the steps of a Scout action?
- When scouting leaves more than four locations in the bottom row, which are discarded, and who decides the order?
- Does the location row refill after a purchase or conquer, or only when you scout?
- After scouting, can you buy or conquer a location from the top row, and is there a discount?
- When can coins and power from depths be used, and when can raise, score or recruit effects be used?
- Can a location's or Manta's free recruit be used without playing a recruit card, and before or after a different main action?
- Can you recruit a character for free before your main action, then play that character as the main action?
- Can an additional action return the character you just played from the discard pile to your hand in the same turn?
- Can you play Matrona repeatedly so your turn never ends?
- Can Xander the Usurper and Healer be looped to play forever without using Matrona?
- When Healer lets you play a card from your discard pile, which card ends on top of the discard pile?
- Can you use a Manta or raise between playing Healer and the card it lets you play from the discard pile?
- Can a Healer activate a discarded King?
- Is playing a character card mandatory for your main action?
Effects
- Can a Raise Location effect be the main action, or only an additional action?
- Can you use several additional actions in one turn, including repeatedly from the same location?
- Can you use the same location's coin or power depths twice in one turn?
- Can you raise a location past a depth with resources without using those resources?
- Must a raise be used in full, such as Raise 2 or Researcher's three raises?
- Can you use a raise, score or other location effect just to move a location up when you cannot complete it?
- What does the Fully Raise icon do, and can it target the card it sits on?
- Can a location's score or raise effect be used on the same location it sits on?
- Can you score a location using only its depth effect, without playing a character card?
- Can you raise a location on another player's board?
- When an opponent's raise moves a location whose newly covered depth has its own raise effect, does that effect trigger?
- When do you receive the Wild Manta from a location you raise?
- Can a Manta gained by fully raising a location pay for the rest of the same main action?
- Can you use a location's effects on the turn you buy or conquer it?
- Can Anglerfish conquer a location from the discard pile, or only the top card?
- In Shell-Armored Raiders, does the discarded location come from the main board or from your own board?
- Does Adela the Liberator make you discard too, or only the other players?
- Can The Grabber use its first conquered location to help pay for the second conquest?
- Is the first conquer of The Grabber free?
- Does surplus power from the first Grabber conquer carry over to the second?
- Can The Grabber use two conquer abilities from the same card in one turn?
- Can you slide several location depths up for their trident bonuses during one conquer?
- Can you use coins from a location to conquer, or power to buy a location?
- Can an effect that says buy be used to conquer a location, or the reverse?
- How do you get your discarded characters back?
- Does Matrona's recover-all and unflip-mantas effect also apply to the other players?
- When Meg makes other players discard a character, is that card removed from the game?
- Where does a character go when Matrona removes it, such as the leftmost Ocean character in a 2-player game?
- Can you discard the Matrona card?
- Does Cassandra the Enchanted let you take all three of her actions for free?
Goals
- Can you claim the goal for five fully raised locations in the middle of an additional action, such as while scoring a location?
- With a multi-step card such as King Xander or Turtle the Treasurer, can you claim the five-fully-raised-locations goal between its raise and score steps?
- Can a purple wild manta be used to claim a goal, or must it be your own player colour?
- If you meet a goal but do not place your manta right away, can you claim it on a later turn?
- When during your turn can you claim a goal?
- Can you claim two or more goals in one turn, with a separate manta for each?
- Can you score the 8-characters-in-hand goal on turn 2 by recruiting for free and using Matrona?
- Can you still use a manta's effect after it has been placed on a goal track?
Goal Tokens
- Does a free recruit count toward the goal to recruit a character that costs 5 coins?
- Must the goal to recruit a 5-coin character be claimed on the turn it is met?
- Does the discard-all-but-one-character goal let you discard cards from your hand to claim it?
- Does the five-fully-risen-locations goal count locations that were not all risen at the same time?
- Do the spend-5-coins or spend-7-power goal tokens use resources from your action?
- Can the goal of having 10 or more characters in your discard pile be reached in a 4-player game?
- Does a character's top-of-discard bonus that includes a conquer count toward the goal of five or more characters with a Conquer effect?
End of the Game
- When a character or location deck runs out, does the game end when the last card is drawn, or only when a card is needed and none is left?
- After someone triggers the end of the game, do all players get a final turn, and in what order?
- What counts as one turn for the final-turn rule?
- What does the number next to the crown on the King cards mean?
- Do King cards count as characters in hand for the end-game Prosperity Point count?
- Does the game end when a player covers the fourth goal with mantas?
Solo Mode
General
- What are the differences between the first and second editions of Aquatica?
- Can Theseus the Wise copy any Ocean character, or only the ones in the Ocean row?
- Can you use two depths of the same location card during one conquer or purchase action?
- When do players draft their Kings, before or after the board is set up?
Aquatica: Cold WatersExpansion
- Does Cold Waters replace the base game's solo mode?
- In Cold Waters solo mode, do you refill the location row after buying or conquering a location?
- In Cold Waters solo mode, how do you resolve a red manta effect when there is no other player?
- How many character and location cards are used for regular solo mode with the Cold Waters expansion?
- At the end of Tribes solo mode, must 6 locations and 6 Ocean characters remain on the board?
- Can you use King cards in Cold Waters Tribes solo mode?
- In Tribes solo mode, can you win by recruiting all the tribes without placing a trained manta for each?
- Can you recruit a tribe with a trained manta that is not your colour?
- Can a free-recruit effect, such as a location's icon or King Cai, be used to recruit a Tribe?
- How do you pay a Tribe's recruit cost, for example 6 gold plus prosperity points?
- When you pay location cards to recruit a Tribe, are they discarded or removed from the game?
- Does the Tribes-mode win by recruiting all the tribes apply in a multiplayer game?
- What ends the game in Tribes mode, and does recruiting a tribe or placing four mantas on the goal tracks end it?
- How do you count unique mantas for the Shapeshifters tribe's end-game score?
- Must you flip 2 mantas to use Cassandra the Enchanted's recruit and conquer actions?
- Can Cassandra the Enchanted's free recruit take any character in the Ocean row, or only the leftmost one?
- Does Little Explorer's 'unflip all your mantas' affect wild mantas as well as trained mantas?
- Can the Tresor Guardian tribe bonus return the character you are playing from the discard pile while that card is still being played?
- What bonus does the Spirit Hunters tribe give?
- Do Spirit Hunters' 2 coins apply when you scout with Sol and then play another character?
- How does the Gluttonous tribe card work?
- Can you reuse a top-of-discard character's bonus by recovering that character on a later turn with Mesmerizer?
- Does the Red Thunder tribe's instant ability make you pick up all your discarded cards or just one?
- Does Red Thunder's 2-points-per-character bonus count the King and the starting characters, or only characters recruited during the game?
- How does Hungry Arctic Piranha's repeat scoring work?
- Can Killer Whale's tridents or power recruit a tribe, and can you mix them with coins?
- Does Bjorn the Fearless let you convert location-specific strength, such as a starting manta's power toward one colour, into coins?
- Can you combine Bjorn's converted power with real coins to pay for one purchase?
- When Anglerfish's discarded location is used to pay for a tribe, does the location go back into play or get removed?
- Can you use a tribe's additional action more than once in a single turn?
- Can you play a character card and also take a tribe's additional action in the same turn?
- Does the Gifted tribe's +2 for recruiting apply to recruiting a tribe as well as a character?
- If several players have a manta on the same tribe, do they all get its ongoing effect and end-game points?
- How many points does the Blind Seers Tribe score: only fully raised locations, or every location on the board?
- Is there any rules difference between the first and second editions of Cold Waters?
- How many mantas can Colossal Squid flip?
- When the Healer plays a card from the discard pile, does that card still count as on top of the pile while it resolves, so its on-top bonus applies?
- Does Royal Penguins' 2-trident bonus apply on each of two conquer actions in one round?
- Can you use a manta to interrupt a copied depth's power before you use it, and does the card have to slide first?
Aquatica: Coral ReefsExpansion
- In Coral Reefs, do you remove location cards based on player count during setup?
- In Coral Reefs, do you shuffle the two character decks together, or keep them separate and stacked?
- Does the double-sided Coral Reefs board replace the base game board?
- Is there a limit on how many locations you can defend, and can you move a Manta that is defending one location to defend a different one?
- If a character card says defend and then scout, must the defend resolve before you decide whether to scout?
- Can a Reef that lets you score a location be used more than once in a turn?
- Does a Reef that fully raises a location get discarded after it triggers?
- Does a defended location discarded during scouting from the bottom row still go to the defending player?
- Do you get a Coral when you receive a defended location?
- Does 'own manta' for defending a location include wild mantas and other players' mantas?
- Does Crab Union's trident bonus for each defended location count everyone's defended locations, or only yours?
- What does Crab Union's last trident icon let you do, and can tridents be mixed with coins?
- Does Coral Carvers score for covered Reef tokens, or only visible ones?
- When a card says to seed Coral, do you take it from your reserve or from the general supply, and how does seeded Coral count toward the final score?
- How many Corals go in the common supply, and what is the final reserve?
- Must you seed Corals evenly across locations before putting a second Coral on any location?
- Can you play the Tribes module using only the Coral Reefs tribes, without Cold Waters?
- When paying for a tribe with Coral, must the Coral come from your reserve, or can it be a seeded one?
- Can each player's fifth Coral Reefs manta mark completed goals or hire tribes?
- Does a Coral Reefs effect on Coral 1 or Coral 14 apply to any of my locations, or only to a specific one?
- Does Murena Koschei score every fully risen location, repeating through seeded ones?
- Does Snappy Dressers give two reef effects when the reef taken differs from the character recruited?
- When Sea Diva discards the leftmost character from the Ocean row, is the Reef tile discarded too?
- When you recruit a character, do you always gain the Reef in that character's slot, including for a free recruit?
- When King Cai gives you a free character at setup, do you also take that location's Reef?
- Does Busy Octopus's scoring depend on completing its four raises on seeded locations?