Cthulhu: Death May Die
183 questions players ask about Cthulhu: Death May Die. Pick one for the answer. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-11-01.
Setup and Compatibility
- Do you set out every figure of the listed enemy types, or only the number shown on the Episode card?
- How many Cultist figures are used in a game, and do the different sculpts count separately?
- How many Fire tokens are available in a game, and is there a cap?
- Do you keep the extra Fire tokens from Season 1 Episode 1 for other episodes?
- Do Season 1 and the Fear of the Unknown core box use the same rules?
- Do Season 2 and Season 4 need a core box, and is Season 3 standalone?
- Can any Elder One be paired with any episode, across different boxes?
- Is Cthulhu: Death May Die a legacy game?
- Can you play solo with a single investigator?
The Map, Movement and Fire
- What do you do when you need to add a Fire token but none are left?
- What counts as adjacent, or one space away, for effects and ranged attacks?
- Can you attack an enemy in an adjacent space around a corner, down stairs or through a doorway?
- Are the two halves of tiles 11a and 24b one space or two?
- How many Fire tokens do you take when you leave a burning space?
- Do you take Fire tokens when an effect (Codependency, insanity) moves you out of a burning space?
- When Al brings another investigator through burning rooms, does that investigator catch fire too?
- Do enemies take Fire tokens when they follow you out of a burning space?
- Can Fire be put out, or only in certain episodes?
- Does a Fire token stop a space from being Safe for resting or investigating?
- Is a space containing only a Yog gate Safe?
- Can you split a Run action, moving some spaces, doing something else, then moving again?
- Can an enemy follow you through a gate when a Waitress lets you move between gates?
- When Codependency or another out-of-turn effect moves you, do you pass through the spaces in between?
Turn Sequence and Mythos Cards
- In what order do end-of-turn effects resolve, and when does the Elder One advance?
- Do enemies attack every investigator in their space, or only the active one?
- Do enemies summoned or moved into your space by a Mythos card or insanity attack that turn?
- Do enemies, including an Elder One, follow you when you leave their space?
- Do enemies follow an Animal Ally when it moves away from them?
- Do enemies move toward you when you attack them from a distance?
- If a Mythos card moves the closest enemy and one is already in your space, what happens?
- Do enemies moving toward the active investigator stop when they pass other investigators?
- When the Elder One advances, are the discarded Mythos cards shuffled back in?
- When three summoning symbols are in the Mythos discard pile, how far does the Elder One advance?
- For The Sleeper Awakens, must the two adjacent R'lyeh spaces be near you?
- What does the R'lyeh Rises Mythos card mean when its Summon Cultists step shows two Yellow Gate symbols?
- When a Mythos card summons at every gate and there are not enough minis, can I choose the order of spawns at normal and Yog gates?
- Do killed monsters and cultists come back, or are they gone for the scenario?
- What happens when an effect summons an enemy but none of that type are left?
- Is the turn order fixed, and can you choose who goes next?
- Does "you" on a Mythos card or Elder One effect mean only the investigator whose turn it is?
- Can you take the Rest action more than once in a turn, or when you are not hurt?
Investigators, Stress and Sanity
- Can sanity ever be recovered?
- How many wounds and stress can a normal investigator take?
- If an effect gives you stress while you are at maximum stress, do you take wounds instead?
- How do insanity thresholds limit sanity loss from one roll or effect?
- Do several Elder One end-of-turn sanity losses count as separate losses for thresholds?
- When do you level up a skill at a threshold, and do the bonus green dice stay?
- Can a Catatonic investigator Rest while enemies are in the space?
- Can a catatonic investigator still investigate?
- Does Catatonia protect against Fire and other damage that is not an attack?
- How do you stand up from Catatonia, and can you do it on another player's turn?
- How does Psychotic Outbreak work if I do not move, and whom does it hit?
- Can Protector redirect the damage from Psychotic Outbreak?
- How does Short Term Memory Loss work, and does a Condition count as the discarded card?
- How does Recurring Trauma keep and resolve a Mythos card?
- Does Recurring Trauma create an infinite sanity-loss loop?
- Can you choose the Astral Promise token option when no R'lyeh token is available?
- Can wounds meant for you be assigned to a companion?
- Does Pyromania hit every other figure in your space?
Skills
- Do skill levels stack, and what does "Instead" replace?
- How many enemies can you sneak past in one Run with Stealth?
- At Stealth level 4, do you still deal a wound to each enemy you sneak past?
- With Stealth level 1, if you pass through two spaces that each hold an enemy, which enemy do you ignore?
- Does Toughness reduce both wounds and sanity loss?
- How many times per turn can Toughness be used?
- Can Toughness reduce the wound from an attack but not the sanity loss, or the reverse?
- Does a free reroll (Toughness, Elizabeth, a pistol) reroll one die or all?
- Does Arcane Mastery apply to enemy attack and fire rolls?
- If Arcane Mastery counts an Elder Sign as a success, does it still count as an Elder Sign?
- When does Arcane Mastery heal stress for Elder Signs counted as successes?
- Do the Monkey Paw and Arcane Mastery stack when both count Elder Signs?
- With Brawling, does each target take the full wounds you roll, or are they split?
- Can Brawling kill the Dark Young in the Black Goat's space and damage the Goat in the same attack?
- Must you declare targets before rolling with Brawling?
- With Brawling level 3, are the two rerolls per attack or per enemy in your space?
- When a bonus applies only to some of the targets of an attack, is the bonus added once?
- Do bonus dice from different weapons and Brawling stack?
- Does Brawling level 4 damage Yog-Sothoth's gates?
- How far does Marksman reach, including level 4's free attack?
- Can Meryl, using Method Acting to copy Navigation level 4, sneak past enemies that do not follow her?
Individual Investigators
- Can Rasputin sacrifice himself to Hastur's final stage and come back to life?
- If Rasputin dies while the Elder One is still on the Summoning track, is the game lost?
- When Rasputin's ability stops his death, does his turn continue and keep his insanity?
- Does Rasputin's Free Death work against insanity, and how often can he use it?
- Does Borden's Savage still deal its extra wound if the attack rolls no successes?
- Does Bert heal wounds when you have run out of Discovery cards and cannot investigate?
- Can Olivia's ability apply to rolls made against her?
- When can Scarlett use Play the Odds?
- How does Fatima's Mythos skill work?
- Does Lysa's Malacoda skill make you safe for every purpose, such as resting and investigating, or only for its own roll?
- Do Margarethe's and Halia's roll abilities work when enemies attack them?
- How many wounds can Gonk take before he dies?
- Does the Cook's free Rest action ignore the rule that you can only Rest when Safe?
- How does Ian's Vengeance Obsession trigger?
- Can Morgan take attacks redirected from other investigators' enemies, and how many?
- When does The Kid's Gate Manipulation trigger?
- Can Houdini take enemies with him or swap with figures behind locked doors?
- Can Lucky Elizabeth use her free reroll during another player's turn?
- If one effect wounds several investigators and one dies from it, does Mary's Roll With It still heal the one who died?
- How does Sister Beth's High Strung treat tentacles?
- What does Pops' Calming Presence do to other investigators' insanity?
- Does Amelie's unique skill set a die before or after the roll?
- Can Annabelle's Channeling Gift and tentacle bonus be added to other investigators' rolls?
- Does 'Instead' in Rosario's level 2 Boisterous replace the whole skill or only its dice part?
- Does Adam's madness skill give bonus dice when his marker is on or just before a threshold?
Discovery Cards, Items and Conditions
- Is there a limit to how many Discovery cards (items, companions, conditions) you can keep?
- When can you use a Discovery card or item, and does it cost an action?
- Must you take an option on a two-sided Discovery card, or can you discard it?
- Do you reshuffle the Discovery discard pile when the deck runs out?
- Can an investigator hold two Conditions with the same name, and do both apply?
- Do cultist bodies and Animal Allies count as figures?
- How do you get rid of a Discovery card?
- Can you use the One-Handed Lab Monkey to carry the Monkey Paw to another investigator, even though the paw cannot be traded?
Dice and Rolls
- In what order are dice results applied: successes, effects, tentacles?
- If one roll defeats the Elder One and also drives the roller insane, who wins?
- Does every tentacle cost sanity, even on non-attack rolls?
- Do bonus green dice (insanity thresholds, items) apply to enemy attacks and Fire rolls?
- Do abilities that modify your rolls apply when an enemy rolls against you?
- Can you spend stress to reroll the same dice repeatedly?
- Can you reroll a symbol that an effect adds to a roll?
- Is there a limit on how many dice you can roll?
- Is end-of-turn Fire rolled as one roll with a die per Fire token?
- Is each enemy attack its own roll?
- Can I roll fewer than my full dice pool, or choose which dice to roll?
Enemies and Combat
- Are Disciples of Hastur monsters or cultists?
- Do "monster" effects hit Cultists or Elder Ones?
- Are the named cult leaders (Lord Faceless, Lord Nameless, Cultmaster X) cultists, monsters or both?
- When one effect wounds several figures, are the wounds applied together and in what order do follow-up effects resolve?
- When two effects trigger at the same time, such as Halia's Oracle and a Star Vampire attack, who decides their order?
- Do wound tokens stay on an enemy until it dies, and do they move with it?
- Who gets the Star Spawn's R'lyeh tentacle bonus?
- Does a Star Vampire still deal its wounds to the attacker after it dies, and does Arcane Mastery or Sinister Book trigger it?
- Does a Byakhee's 'moves directly into your space' Mythos effect move every Byakhee on the board to you?
- Does a Ghoul spawn another Ghoul when hit by Ian's or Kid's damage abilities?
The Ritual and the Elder One
- Can the Elder One be damaged before the ritual is disrupted?
- Do earlier Elder One stages' effects and attack dice stay in play?
- Do wounds or health carry over between Elder One stages?
- Does the Elder One advancing on the Summoning track change its stage or heal it?
- After the Elder One is on the board, does the track still advance and do its effects still resolve?
- What happens when the ritual is disrupted before the Elder One is on the board?
- When you defeat an Elder One stage, is the next stage revealed immediately?
- Does the Elder One move to a new space when a stage is defeated?
- Does defeating one stage of the Elder One count as killing an enemy for an on-kill free attack?
Death and Ending the Game
Specific Elder Ones and Episodes
- Does a wound on a Dark Young that does not kill it summon another one?
- Does the Black Goat's own end-of-turn attack hit itself, and what if no Dark Young are left?
- How do Yog-Sothoth's Yog Gates duplicate summoned enemies?
- How does Hastur's final stage sacrifice resolve if the sacrificed investigator dies, or Disciples run short?
- Who gets Hastur's Yellow Signs, and what does "2+" mean?
- Does Dagon use the Deep Ones from the core box, or only his three Servants of the Deep?
- How does Dagon's final transformation and Deep One loss condition work?
- How do Cthulhu's body parts work: movement, Conditions and rerolls?
- When the Cthulhu final-stage reveal makes you discard items and take wounds to keep them, does Toughness reduce the total once or per item?
- Do you keep the Fire tokens from Episode 1 when you play another scenario?
- How do Ballgoer tokens work in Season 1 Episode 3?
- How do family members and the boat work in Season 1 Episode 5?
- What rulings apply to Season 1 Episode 6 and the Lost Episodes?
Cthulhu: Death May Die – Season 2 ExpansionExpansion
- Do I need a core box to play Season 2, and can I mix its investigators and monsters?
- How do the Season 2 expansion monsters spawn and activate?
- Can an investigator hold two Gangster Bosses if one was obtained by trading rather than claiming?
- Do the Star Vampires already on the board move before a new summon in the Season 2 episode?
- With the Chainsaw, when you attack both monsters and cultists in your space at once, how do the dice modifiers apply?
- How does the Moonshiner card work?
- On Season 2 Episode 3, where do the alibi tokens go when Deflection says to flip and place them back randomly?
- What does Father Luke's Smite Evil do?
- Do gamble and episode rolls follow normal dice rules?
- Do fire tokens placed on campsites behave like normal fire tokens?
- If you run out of gangsters in the Season 2 Episode 1 mobster scenario, do you reshuffle discards?
- What does Hound of Tindalos require before an investigator can attack it?
- Does the Tempted condition apply at the end of every turn until it is removed?
- After the ritual is disrupted, do an episode's special effects and tokens still apply?
Cthulhu: Death May Die – Season 4 ExpansionExpansion
- Is Season 4 compatible with the older boxes, and does it need Season 3 tiles?
- Where do the comic Nyarlathotep stage cards come from, and how does he advance?
- Under John's Leadership, who loses sanity from tentacles when the other investigator performs the action?
- Do Gary's dynamite tokens come back after use?
- How do the Glowing Ring and Handheld Magnifier relics work?
- Can an investigator use Brawling on other figures in the space after a Reformed Cultist free attack on a cultist?
- In Horror in the Sky, must an investigator be in a space to control it for the objective?
- When can Anika use her Arcane Student skill to investigate by discarding knowledge tokens?
- When does Rosario's Boisterous enemy movement happen relative to an insanity card?