Dune: Imperium – Uprising
345 questions players ask about Dune: Imperium – Uprising, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-23.
345 questions players ask about Dune: Imperium – Uprising, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-23.
The rulebook's setup step B spells out the 1/5/4 split.
Ten — one Conflict I, five Conflict II and all four Conflict III cards, stacked with Conflict I on top and Conflict III at the bottom. The leftover Conflict I and II cards go back in the box unseen. Building the deck from every card makes the game run far longer than intended, since the game also ends when the Conflict deck runs out.
No — setup only says each player takes a Leader, chosen or dealt at random. Drafting in reverse turn order, dealing two and keeping one, and similar methods are group conventions, not rules. Shaddam Corrino IV is only available when you play with the CHOAM module.
The rulebook's opening page frames it as a recommendation and says nonstandard combinations are allowed.
No — the note about not using two Leaders from the same House is a suggestion for a more story-faithful game. It sits on the flavor page of the rulebook, and the game is designed to allow any combination.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Use the side pictured in the rulebook's setup diagram; that is the standard 1–4 player board. The other side is for the six-player team game. Nothing labels it, but you can tell it apart: it has no Emperor or Fremen tracks on the left (those Factions move to the Commanders' boards) and it has printed outlines for the six-player Swordmaster tokens.
The rulebook's setup step F2 says the bank components are not meant to be limited.
No — the bank is unlimited. If you run out of tokens or sandworm figures, use any substitute; more than eight sandworms in play at once is rare but possible. Troops are different: each player has only their own cubes.
The rulebook's Units and Conflict section says you can't recruit with an empty supply.
They are limited, by design. When your supply is empty you can't recruit until troops come back to it, and that cap on troop strength is intentional. Don't add extra cubes, also because Rise of Ix Negotiators and Immortality specimens draw from the same cubes.
Setup step H of the rulebook says the Objective with the marker sets the first player.
Whoever is dealt that Objective takes the First Player marker and goes first in round 1. That is how the first player is chosen in Uprising.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — they are printer labels with no game meaning. Take out the starting decks and the solo cards, then shuffle the rest of each type together.
They belong to the six-player team mode; the Six-Player Games supplement explains how the Commanders' decks are built.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — the game supports 1 to 4 players, plus the 3-versus-3 team mode for exactly six. There is no official five-player mode and no 2-versus-2 team rules, with or without Bloodlines.
The rulebook's CHOAM Module section is the only part described as optional.
Not officially — spies and sandworms are core rules. The only optional module in the box is CHOAM (contracts), which the rulebook suggests leaving out of your first game.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Her Signet Ring (Spice Agony) is a single paid action: pay 1 spice to draw an Intrigue card and move a troop from your supply next to the Bene Gesserit track as a memory, or skip all of it. Her passive (Other Memories) is optional: when you send an Agent to a Bene Gesserit space you may return all memories to draw a card for each and then flip her. You can decline and keep building memories, and you can also flip with zero memories.
The designer answered this directly in 2023, and the official FAQ has the same entry.
Yes — once she flips during an Agent turn, you may pay water to repeat the Bene Gesserit space's effects on that same turn. Because you choose the order of your turn's effects, the flip can come in between other effects.
“Yes, you can use Reverend Mother ability on the same turn you flip the leader card.”
— Merakon, designer
The designer ruled that a Combat space's crossed swords are an attribute, not an effect, and players agree the Influence bump isn't repeated.
No — only the effects printed on the space are gained again. The Influence you get for visiting a Faction space is not a printed effect, so you still move up once. You don't pay the space's cost twice, and the crossed swords on Desert Tactics or Fremkit are an attribute of a Combat space, not an effect, so deployment still follows the normal limit: troops recruited this turn plus up to two from your garrison.
The rulebook's Clarifications section says the token remains on the rightmost space.
It stays on the last space for the rest of the game. His Signet Ring rewards you for moving to a new space, so once the token can't move further the ring gives nothing; it doesn't loop back or repeat the last reward.
The official FAQ says an arrow cost can be paid only once, and players agree on the ordering.
One — recalling a Spy for 2 swords is a cost-arrow effect, and those can be paid only once per turn. You can order your Reveal effects so a Spy is used for something else first, or place a Spy during the Reveal turn and then recall that same Spy for the swords.
The rulebook's Clarifications section answers this for both Leaders.
They trigger whenever you move up onto or past the 2 space, including when one effect jumps you from 1 to 3. Dropping below 2 and climbing back triggers them again. Moving down onto 2, or reaching 4 or 6, does not.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
It's optional — the ability starts with 'you may choose', so you can skip it, for example when no 1-cost card is in the Imperium Row. It offers two separate options: acquire a card that costs 1 to your hand, or trash a card from your hand. The spice bonus belongs only to the trash option, when the trashed card costs 1 or more.
The designer ruled on this directly in 2023 and 2024, and the official FAQ has the same entry.
No — the 'can't deploy units to the Conflict' drawback lasts only for the turn on which Shaddam plays his Signet Ring, whatever his seat in turn order. It never affects other players, except that in the six-player game it covers the Ally Shaddam activates that turn. Units already in the Conflict stay there.
“Shaddam's Signet Ring's drawback only affects Shaddam and will never affect other players.”
— Merakon, designer
The rulebook's Clarifications say the restriction takes effect immediately when the ring is played.
Units deployed earlier that turn, for example with a Plot Intrigue, stay in the Conflict, because the restriction starts the moment the ring is played. From then on nothing can be deployed that turn: neither the ring's own troop nor troops from a Combat space. Those recruits go to your garrison instead.
One experienced player explained the card; no official ruling.
Choose one option: recruit a troop and gain 1 Solari, or pay 3 Solari for one Influence with a Faction of your choice.
The official FAQ covers this, and the designer confirmed that 'acquire' means 'take'.
They sit face up beside the contract display; Shaddam does not start the game holding them. Whenever an effect lets him take a contract, he may take a Sardaukar contract instead of one of the two regular face-up ones. No one else can take them, and each can be taken once.
The rulebook's setup and CHOAM Module sections restrict him to games with the module.
Yes — he works as a normal Leader in 1–4 player games, but only when the CHOAM module is in play, because his ability uses contracts.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
On where the Spy placed by the ring goes. A Spy on a Landsraad (green) post lets you pay 1 spice for 3 Solari; a Spy on a Spacing Guild or Bene Gesserit post lets you pay 2 Solari for an Intrigue card. It's not a passive: other Spy placements don't trigger it. The condition is met when the Spy is placed, so you may recall that Spy (for example for Special Mission) before paying.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — decide on Gather Intelligence first, right after placing your Agent, then resolve the ring and place a Spy back on the freed post. The 'recall for no effect' rule only matters when all your Spies are already out and you need to place another.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — the trigger is an opponent sending an Agent to the space, not collecting spice there. It doesn't matter whether they harvest, summon worms or find no bonus spice, and a Rival's Agent counts as an opponent's.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
It is removed during setup and never enters his deck — in effect, it's trashed before the game starts.
The rulebook notes that strength is set during Reveal effects precisely so Gurney can check it.
At any point during your Reveal turn when your strength meets the requirement. Setting strength isn't a fixed step in Uprising, so you can trigger it and afterwards even retreat troops.
One experienced player explained this; no official ruling.
On your Reveal turn — the ability checks whether one of your sandworms is already in the Conflict at that point. It isn't a reward handed out after combat resolves.
The official FAQ's 'optional effects' entry lists the exceptions, and the designer ruled Fremen Bond and Command mandatory.
Almost everything is mandatory, including card draws, recruiting troops and drawing Intrigue cards. The exceptions are:
Fremen Bond and Command are not optional, despite the 'you may' wording in the icon guide.
The designer ruled on this directly in 2025, correcting the rulebook's icon guide.
No — Fremen Bond (and Bloodlines' Command) is mandatory: if you have another Fremen card in play, you must take the effect. The icon guide on the back of the rulebook says 'you may', but the designer ruled in 2025 that the wording was an error carried over from the original game, and every playtest treated it as mandatory.
“Fremen Bond and Command share the same official ruling which is that they are mandatory.”
— Merakon, designer
Yes — do as much as you can and the rest fizzles. You can visit a space that recruits troops with an empty supply, visit Fremkit or play Water of Life with nothing left to draw, or use a recall effect when no other Agent of yours is out. You still have to pay the space's cost. The exception is Intrigue cards: you can't play one purely to get it out of your hand when it would do nothing.
The official FAQ's 'optional effects' and 'discard' entries cover this.
No — a standalone discard is mandatory. Discarding is only optional when it is the cost of a cost-arrow effect, in which case skipping it means skipping the reward. 'Discard' always means from your hand unless the card says otherwise.
No — a cost→effect ability is one bundled effect: pay the cost in full, then take all of its rewards before moving on. You may resolve it before or after your other effects, but not in the middle of them. The one thing that happens in between is an Unload effect on a card you discarded as part of the cost. The designer's 2022 ruling that the two halves could be split was reversed by his 2023 ruling.
The official FAQ's 'paying a cost' entry covers this.
No — each cost→effect can be paid once per use, even if you could afford it again. Only something that explicitly repeats the effect, such as sandworm reward doubling, lets you pay a second time.
No — you must have the whole cost ready before you start paying. Solari you would get from an Unload card discarded as part of Corrinth City's cost can't fund the Solari part of that same cost.
A trash effect can take a card from your hand, your cards in play (including the card you just played this turn) or your discard pile. It can't reach into your draw deck unless a card specifically says so.
The rulebook's Clarifications cover Spacing Guild's Favor, and the designer confirmed the deck-discard case in 2023.
No — they trigger only when an effect makes you discard the card from your hand (or, with Long Live the Fighters, from the top of your deck). Moving played cards to the discard pile at Clean Up is not discarding, and trashing doesn't count either. You also can't discard at will; you need an effect that discards.
The rulebook keeps Agent-turn cards in front of you until Clean Up.
They are in play until Clean Up at the end of your Reveal turn, so they count for 'another card in play' conditions (Fremen Bond, Stilgar, Bene Gesserit checks). They are not 'revealed': only cards revealed in your Reveal turn count for effects that look at revealed cards. Cards in your discard pile are never in play.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — Fremen Bond is in the Reveal box, so only cards you reveal get it. A Fremen card played earlier does help a revealed card meet its condition, and two Fremen Bond cards revealed together satisfy each other.
The rulebook's Agent Turn section ties Agent box effects to the card played that turn.
No — an Agent box resolves only on the turn you play that card. If its condition (for example, another Bene Gesserit card in play) isn't met then, it does nothing and never triggers later. Only the later card can benefit from the earlier one.
The rulebook's Deck-Building section covers reshuffling.
Shuffle your discard pile into a new deck and keep drawing. If both are empty you draw nothing. Cards you played earlier this round are still in play, not in the discard pile, so they can't be reshuffled. If an effect makes you discard to draw, the discard happens first, so that card is reshuffled with the rest.
The rulebook says new Imperium and Reserve cards go to your discard pile.
To your discard pile, like every acquired card, unless the effect says to put it somewhere else.
The rulebook's Acquiring Cards section only refills the row when a card leaves it.
No — a slot is refilled only when its card is acquired (or removed by an effect), so an unwanted card can sit there all game, even in solo. Immortality's Family Atomics token is the expansion rule that lets each player reset the row once.
Players disagree and there is no official ruling; the effect-first reading has more support.
Usually played as yes — the Acquire effect happens at the moment of acquiring, then the empty slot is refilled. Some players argue the row must always hold five cards, so the refill comes first; there is no official ruling.
The designer confirmed in 2024 that an empty Reserve pile can't be acquired from.
Yes — when a Reserve pile runs out, nobody can acquire that card until a copy comes back. A trashed copy returns to its pile and can be acquired again.
The official FAQ has an entry for The Spice Must Flow.
No — you keep anything you gained from an Acquire effect, including The Spice Must Flow's Victory Point, even if the card is trashed afterwards.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — a card's Faction affiliation only matters to other cards that check it; it doesn't give Influence. In Uprising, The Spice Must Flow carries a Spacing Guild icon, so Guild-matters cards count it; its effect is otherwise unchanged.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — a turn is a single Agent turn or your Reveal turn. The condition has to be met during the same turn you play the card, not earlier in the round.
Trashed cards and discard piles are generally played as open information: show what you trash or discard, and any player may check a discard pile. Your draw deck is hidden and you can't search it. The rules don't spell out discard-pile access, so a few groups restrict it.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Itself — if you have another Bene Gesserit card in play when you play Weirding Woman on an Agent turn, it goes from play back to your hand, so you can play it again later. If no other Bene Gesserit card is in play at that moment, it does nothing and won't trigger later. With two copies played on separate turns, only the second one returns.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes to the first — revealed cards are in play, so resolve the other card's Reveal effects first (e.g. Sardaukar Coordination's swords, Double Agent's Persuasion) and then trash it; you keep what it gave you. Calculus can't trash itself, and with two copies only one can trash the other, because the trashed copy leaves play and can't use its own ability.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — the English card gives a sword for each other revealed card with a sword icon. Cards that count themselves say so explicitly.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
It triggers once per turn: 'if you acquire' is a condition, not 'whenever', so buying two copies of The Spice Must Flow doesn't pay twice. The Influence for each Faction you spy on is one check, so a Spy you place because of that Influence (or later in the turn) doesn't add a bump retroactively. You can, though, place Spies with other Reveal effects first and then resolve Guild Spy.
Yes — the extra 3 Persuasion is added to the card's base 2, for 5. If you also have Bene Gesserit Operative or another Spy-dependent card, resolve that one first, then recall the Spies.
The designer answered this directly in 2023.
Yes — once Spy Network's 'two or more Spies' condition is met, the 2 Persuasion goes into your pool and stays. Resolve Spy Network first, then recall a Spy for Bene Gesserit Operative's Intrigue card.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — the Swordmaster bonus is 'also', on top of the High Council requirement. Without a seat the card gives no Persuasion.
One experienced player explained the card; no official ruling.
No — its Agent box gives one Influence with a Faction of your choice, then trashes the card. If you also sent the Agent to a Faction space, that space gives its own separate Influence, and you may put both on the same Faction.
The designer answered this directly in 2024.
Yes — it can acquire a Reserve card such as The Spice Must Flow, not only a card in the Imperium Row.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — it lets you acquire a card, so one card per use, paying its Persuasion cost in Solari (for example, 9 Solari for The Spice Must Flow), and the card goes straight to your hand.
The designer confirmed in 2023 that a recall effect with nothing to recall just fizzles.
With your first Agent, yes — its recall effect simply fizzles if you have no other Agent on the board. After all your Agents are placed, no: every Agent turn starts by sending an Agent with the card you play, and Steersman, unlike Kwisatz Haderach, has no text letting you take one back from the board.
One experienced player read the card text; no official ruling.
Yes — it lets you send an Agent from anywhere, which includes one still on your Leader.
The official FAQ has an entry for Guild Envoy.
The discard is mandatory when you play it on an Agent turn; only the extra draw depends on discarding a Spacing Guild card. It must come from your hand, so Guild Envoy (already in play) can't discard itself. If it's your last card you can still play it, with nothing to discard.
Several experienced players agree; the designer's ruling is only relayed from Discord.
The look-draw-discard-trash effect has no 'may' and no trash icon, so it's mandatory whenever it resolves. It needs at least three cards already in your deck; you can't reshuffle your discard pile to reach three, so with fewer it does nothing. Players relay a designer ruling from Discord that you can't dodge it by resolving it early while your deck is short and drawing afterwards.
The official FAQ says cost-arrow effects are optional; the seat restriction is the card's text.
The cost-arrow is optional: you may play Corrinth City to an Emperor space without paying anything and simply skip that effect. Its Reveal option for the High Council reward is only available if you don't already have a seat; with a seat, take the other option.
The official FAQ says cost-arrow effects are optional.
No — trashing this card and an Emperor card from your hand is the cost of an optional cost-arrow effect. If you skip it, nothing is trashed; you just don't get the effect of gaining two Influence instead of one.
One experienced player answered this; no official ruling.
No — like every Influence requirement, it means 2 or more.
The rulebook allows effects in any order, and the designer confirmed in 2023 that card text needn't be resolved top to bottom.
In any order you like, once the fixed steps are done: play the card, choose a space its icon allows, pay the space's cost and place the Agent, and decide on Gather Intelligence. After that, the space's effects, the Agent box, the Influence bump, Signet Ring effects, contracts and Plot Intrigues can be taken in any sequence, and card text needn't be resolved top to bottom. Players generally also split a space's separate rewards (such as Research Station's two draws). Only a cost→effect pair must be resolved together.
The rulebook's Board Space Costs section says the cost is paid before resolving any effects.
No — a space's cost must be paid immediately, before any effect of the space or the card you played. If you can't pay it then, you can't go there. That rules out paying Spice Refinery or Gather Support with what the card gives, or using bonus spice on a Maker space to pay its water. Plot Intrigues you play before sending the Agent can provide the resources, though.
The rulebook's Board Space Costs section requires costs to be paid before any effects.
The '?' marks a cost you choose when you send the Agent: pay nothing for the lower reward, or pay the listed amount for the better one. You get only the reward matching what you paid, once. Because it's a cost, it's decided and paid up front, before Gather Intelligence and before any spice or Solari you gain that turn. At Spice Refinery, you can pay 1 spice for 4 Solari and then use something like Local Fence to convert, but not the other way round.
The rulebook's Agent Turn and Recall sections cover this.
Not one you already occupy this round — Agents go only to unoccupied spaces, and Infiltrate can't get around your own Agent. Spaces used last round are free again, since all Agents are recalled at the end of each round.
The rulebook's Agent Turn section spells this out.
No — an Agent turn is always: play one card, send one Agent to a space matching one of its icons, pay the cost, then resolve effects. A card with no Agent icon can't be played on an Agent turn, and you only get the Agent box of the card played that turn, not of cards from earlier turns.
The designer explained in 2022 that a turn is undecided until you declare it.
Yes — at the start of your turn you can play Plot Intrigues before declaring whether it's an Agent turn or a Reveal turn. Once you declare a Reveal turn, though, you can't switch back to an Agent turn.
The designer ruled in 2023 that a Recall Agent effect needs another Agent or is wasted.
No to both. One visit trashes one Intrigue card to draw a replacement, and its Recall Agent effect must return one of your other Agents. If another effect later recalls the Agent from Imperial Privilege, you can go back and use it again.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — each visit lets you pick either option. The Maker Hooks option only gives hooks if you don't have them, so with hooks in hand you'll normally take the troop and water.
The official FAQ confirms the Rival case, and the two prices are printed on the space.
The first player to get a Swordmaster pays 8 Solari; everyone after pays 6. In solo and two-player games a Rival gaining its Swordmaster first also drops the cost to 6 for human players.
The rulebook's Units and Conflict section describes the Control bonus.
The bank — the visiting player pays nothing extra. You gain 1 Solari (Arrakeen, Spice Refinery) or 1 spice (Imperial Basin) whenever any player, including you, sends an Agent there.
The rulebook's Factions section covers the 2-Influence point.
Yes — each player who reaches 2 Influence with a Faction scores 1 VP and unlocks that Faction's 2-Influence perks, whether they land on the space or jump past it with a double gain. Drop below 2 and you lose that point; climb back and you regain it. Only the Alliance is exclusive to one player.
The rulebook's Factions section says the bonus can be earned again after moving back.
Yes — anyone who moves up onto the 4 space gets its bonus, not just the Alliance holder. Dropping below 4 doesn't take the bonus away, and climbing back from 3 to 4 later earns it again. Dropping from 5 to 4 earns nothing.
The official FAQ's Alliance entry covers dropping below 4, on top of the rulebook's overtaking rule.
In three cases:
The rulebook's Player Turns section lets you play any Plot Intrigues you have during your turn.
As many as you like during one of your Agent or Reveal turns, as long as you meet each card's conditions and pay its costs.
The rulebook's Intrigue Cards section and the official FAQ both cover the timing.
No — Plot Intrigues are played only during your own Agent or Reveal turns, and Combat Intrigues only in the Combat phase. A Plot Intrigue whose effect applies later in the round (such as Call to Arms) can still be played on an Agent turn; its effect then waits for your Reveal turn.
The official FAQ requires conditions and costs, and the designer said Intrigues can't be played for no effect.
No — you can't play an Intrigue purely to dump it (for example, to avoid having it stolen at Secrets), and you must always meet its conditions and pay its cost. Cards that can legally resolve as 'nothing' are the exception: 'up to' or 'any number' effects (Detonation deploying zero troops, Call to Arms with no purchase), Manipulate without buying, or an Influence gain at the top of a track.
Players disagree and there is no official ruling on this exact case.
Contested. One reading: playing an Intrigue means carrying out its effect, so you must recall a Spy and place it as the card directs. The other: the rulebook only says you may recall a Spy when your supply is empty, so you can decline and place nothing. There is no official ruling either way.
The official FAQ's Intrigue cards entry covers this.
Shuffle the Intrigue discard pile to form a new deck. It rarely comes up in a normal-length game.
The designer answered the public-knowledge question directly in 2023.
Yes, it's shown — trashing an Intrigue card is public. A trashed Intrigue is removed from the game like any trashed card; it doesn't go to the Intrigue discard pile.
The designer answered with the troop icon's definition in 2023.
Each card you acquire during your Reveal turn this round recruits one troop (it's 'whenever', so it repeats). Those troops go to your garrison: you aren't sending an Agent to a Combat space on a Reveal turn, so they can't be deployed. You can play it on an earlier Agent turn and the effect still applies on your Reveal turn, and you're not required to buy anything.
The designer used this card as his example in 2023 when ruling that Shield Wall detonation is optional.
No — unlike most sandworm effects, Unexpected Allies has no Maker Hooks requirement, and summoning puts the worm straight into the Conflict even if you visited no Combat space and have no troops there. You still pay its water cost, the Shield Wall still blocks protected Conflicts, and blowing up the Wall with it is optional.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Nothing — both Spies stay on that post. Distraction doesn't remove or move the existing Spy.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — the card has no 'or', so you get 2 swords and may also recall a Spy for 3 more, 5 in total. Recalling a Spy this way doesn't draw you a card.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — both are cost-arrow effects, so you may use just one or both, in whichever order you like. Resolve the card as a whole before moving on to other effects.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes, if an eligible card is available (Prepare the Way almost always is). If nothing eligible can be acquired, you can still play the card, and that part simply does nothing.
The official FAQ's Manipulate entry covers this.
It's trashed — a card set aside with Manipulate that you don't acquire is removed from the game rather than returned to the Imperium Row. Its discount only lowers what you pay, not the printed cost, so it doesn't make a cost-4 card eligible for Inspire Awe.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — the effect resolves once, based on the situation when you play it, and later changes don't undo it. You'd only lose its swords if all your units left the Conflict, which drops your strength to 0.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — you get the swords and may deploy up to 2 units from your garrison (fewer is fine). Like every Combat Intrigue, you need a unit in the Conflict to play it. Cards with an 'OR' banner are the ones that give only one option.
The rulebook's Units and Conflict section and the official FAQ's 'troops' entry both state this.
Every troop you recruit during that turn, from any source (the space, the card, a Signet Ring, a contract, a Plot Intrigue, a tech), whether recruited before or after placing the Agent, plus up to two troops already in your garrison. You don't have to deploy them the moment they arrive; any time during that Agent turn works. Each Agent turn on a Combat space gives you this again, and on a turn with no Combat space, new troops go to your garrison.
The official FAQ's 'troops' entry forbids re-recruiting garrisoned troops.
No — recruit what your supply allows (Heighliner with three troops left recruits three), and only those count as recruited this turn. Troops already in your garrison, including ones recruited on earlier turns, are limited to two; you can't 're-recruit' them to get around that. Heighliner with a full supply is 5 recruited plus 2 from the garrison, 7 in total.
The designer defined each wording on BGG in 2021–2022.
Yes — 'lose a troop' means returning one of your troops from either your garrison or the Conflict to your supply. Cards that care say so: 'lose a garrisoned troop', 'lose a deployed troop' or 'troops in the Conflict'.
“Lose a troop = Return one of your troops from the conflict or garrison to your supply.”
— Merakon, designer
The rulebook's Setting Your Strength section requires at least one unit, and names sandworms as units.
Yes — sandworms are units, and you need at least one unit (not specifically a troop) in the Conflict to have strength. A lone sandworm gives its 3 strength plus your swords and lets you play Combat Intrigues. Swords with no unit at all count for nothing. (An early German printing said 'troop'; the corrected text says 'unit'.)
The designer ruled in 2023 that sandworms can never be retreated.
No — sandworms are units but not troops, so effects that refer to troops don't touch them. They can never enter a garrison, so they can never be retreated, for example by Desert Ambush.
“Sandworms can never enter a garrison, thus they can never be retreated.”
— Merakon, designer
The rulebook's Resolve Combat and Sandworm Reward Doubling sections cover both points.
Sandworms go back to the bank after each combat; you never keep them. Each sandworm adds 3 strength, so extra worms add more strength, but the reward doubling is the same with one worm or several.
The rulebook's Units and Conflict section says a summoned sandworm is immediately deployed.
Yes — the sandworm icon summons the worm and deploys it straight into the Conflict; worms never go to a garrison. You still need any requirement the effect shows (usually Maker Hooks), and you can't summon into a Conflict protected by the Shield Wall.
The official FAQ's 'Maker hooks' entry says you don't spend them.
No — once gained, Maker Hooks stay on your garrison for the rest of the game and are never spent. When an effect shows the hooks icon before a cost, it's a requirement: having hooks lets you pay the rest (e.g. spice or water) for the worm.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Only with an effect that doesn't list hooks as a requirement. Every Maker space and every Imperium card that summons worms requires Maker Hooks; the Intrigue card Unexpected Allies is the exception.
The rulebook's Units and Conflict section describes the protected locations.
Only the three critical locations — Arrakeen, Spice Refinery and Imperial Basin. Their (yellow) Conflict cards show a crossed-out sandworm as a reminder. Every other Conflict allows sandworms even while the Wall stands, and once the Wall is destroyed, worms may join any Conflict, including the protected ones.
The official FAQ's Shield Wall entry and the rulebook both say so.
No — the token goes back in the box and the protected locations stay open to sandworms for the rest of the game.
The designer explained in 2023 why detonation is optional, and the official FAQ agrees.
Optional, and no hooks are needed. When the detonation icon appears you may remove the Wall or leave it, so a player without hooks is never forced to open the protected Conflicts to opponents who have them. If the Wall is already gone, you still pay the card's cost (e.g. 2 spice) to get the sandworm.
“Yes, removing the shield wall is optional when you trigger the detonation icon.”
— Merakon, designer
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
From your garrison — 'deploy' means from the garrison unless the effect says otherwise. Since the card also recruits a troop, you can recruit it first and then deploy it.
The designer ruled on this directly in 2023.
It works like any other Agent icon, except it points to every space connected to a post where you have a Spy. Using it doesn't recall the Spy. The space doesn't have to be empty: if another player's Agent is there, recall that Spy (or another connected one) to Infiltrate. If the space is empty, you may still recall it to Gather Intelligence. You still meet the space's requirements, pay its cost, and can never join your own Agent.
“The spy agent icon works just like the other agent icons (City, Spice Trade, Landsraad, Fremen, etc.) except that it “points” to any space where you are currently spying.”
— Merakon, designer
The official FAQ's Spies entry says you must still play a card.
Yes — Spy actions are added to a normal Agent turn; they never replace it. You play a card whose Agent icon (or Spy Agent icon) allows the space, pay its cost and place your Agent. Infiltrate only lets you ignore the other Agent already there. The rulebook's 'without the use of a card' just means no Recall Spy icon is needed.
The designer ruled out infiltrating your own Agent in 2023, and players agree several opponents can share a space.
Not your own — Infiltrate only ignores other players' Agents, so you can never have two of your Agents on one space. Any number of opponents' Agents is fine, so three or more colors can end up on the same space.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — there is nothing to infiltrate. On an empty space you simply place your Agent; you may still recall a connected Spy, but that is Gather Intelligence (draw a card).
The rulebook's Spies section requires the decision immediately after placing the Agent.
Immediately after placing your Agent, before any effect of the space or the card. A Spy placed by that turn's card, space or Signet Ring (e.g. Lady Margot's) arrives too late. To use a fresh Spy, place it with a Plot Intrigue before you play your Agent card. If a Spy was already there, you can recall it to draw and then place one back with the turn's effects.
The rulebook's Spies section defines Gather Intelligence this way.
Only a Spy on a post connected to the space your Agent just went to, as part of that Agent turn. You can't recall Spies at other times to draw cards. The card comes from your own deck (reshuffling if needed); if your deck and discard are both empty you may still recall and simply draw nothing.
The official FAQ's Spies entry gives this exact example.
No — each recall must be for a different effect. One Spy can Infiltrate and the other Gather Intelligence, but you can't Gather Intelligence twice (or Infiltrate twice) on one Agent placement.
Players disagree, the rulebook says 'may', and there is no official ruling.
Most players and the widely used compiled FAQ treat it as mandatory when you have a Spy in your supply; the rulebook's 'may' covers cases with no legal post (e.g. Lady Margot's blue posts all taken). When all your Spies are already out, recalling one to re-place it is optional, so you can decline. Some players read the rulebook's 'may' as making the whole placement optional; there's no official ruling.
The designer confirmed in 2023 that the recalled Spy may go back on the same post.
You may first recall one of your Spies from anywhere for no effect (no draw, no Infiltrate) and then place it, even back on the same post. It's optional, and the rest of the card's effect still resolves either way.
Yes — you did recall a Spy, so Rebel Supplier, Strike Fleet, Public Spectacle, Imperial Spymaster and similar cards are satisfied.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
By recalling a Spy for any legal reason that turn: Infiltrating, Gathering Intelligence, paying a Recall Spy cost (those Spies can come from anywhere on the board), or relocating with none in supply. The card itself doesn't let you recall a Spy. One recall satisfies every such condition, but each Recall Spy cost needs its own Spy. A Spy recalled to pay a cost (e.g. Find Weakness) doesn't also draw a card.
The rulebook's Recall phase returns only Agents.
No — the Recall phase returns only Agents. Spies stay on their posts across rounds until you recall them or an effect moves them.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — Gather Intelligence frees the post first, and the space's or card's Spy placement can then put a Spy right back on it. It's a common combo, and it also satisfies 'if you recalled a Spy' effects.
The designer described Double Agent's Spy as sharing the post with the enemy Spy in 2023.
Yes — when an effect lets you place a Spy on a post an opponent already occupies, both Spies stay; neither is replaced. Double Agent places a Spy only on a post connected to the space you sent your Agent to this turn, even one holding an opponent's Spy, but never on a post that already has yours.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — observation posts are separate from the spaces they watch. You need an effect that places a Spy, but not the space's Influence requirement or cost. Sending an Agent there later still needs both.
The rulebook's Resolve Reveal Effects section says you may resolve them in any order and acquire cards in between.
Yes — resolve your revealed cards' effects, Plot Intrigues and Reveal-turn Leader abilities in any order, and acquire cards before, between or after them. Each later effect can use what earlier ones produced: water from one card can pay for a worm on another, or a Spy placed by one card can count for Smuggler's Haven or Guild Spy.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — Persuasion and swords from revealed cards go into your pool for the turn and stay there when the card is trashed afterwards (for example with Calculus of Power, or a card that trashes itself). You can spend that Persuasion before or after trashing. The swords count as long as you have a unit in the Conflict.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — swords, like Persuasion, are gained automatically and set your strength. Only spending Persuasion is up to you.
The official FAQ's Reveal turn entry covers both cases, and the designer confirmed the after-Reveal case in 2022.
A card drawn during your Reveal turn is revealed immediately and used that turn, even if it's a card you just acquired and reshuffled in. A card drawn after your Reveal turn stays in your hand into the next round, when you draw your usual five on top of it.
They are separate: you always gain the Persuasion, and you may also pay the shown cost (e.g. 3 spice) for its reward. Persuasion is only ever spent on acquiring cards, never on card effects.
The designer confirmed the unit requirement in 2023; the passing rule is in the rulebook.
No — only players with at least one unit in the Conflict may play Combat Intrigues, and if your last unit is removed you can't play one to get back in. Starting with the first player, each player plays one or passes; passing doesn't lock you out, and combat resolves only after everyone involved passes in a row. An Intrigue you draw during combat can be played in the same combat.
The rulebook's Setting Your Strength section says strength drops to 0 when your last unit leaves.
No — with no unit in the Conflict your strength is 0, whatever swords you revealed. You can pay a retreat cost with your last two troops, but the swords only count if a unit gets back into the Conflict later that turn. To retreat two and still fight, you need a third unit there.
The designer answered this in 2024, and the official FAQ and rulebook agree.
Not normally — with 1–3 players only first and second are rewarded, and the third reward is used only when players tie for second. It's given out for third place only in four- (or six-) player games.
The rulebook's Ties section covers this.
Nobody wins: every player tied for first gets the second reward and no one takes the Conflict card. With three or fewer players nothing else is given; with four or six, if exactly two tied for first, the rest compete for the third reward. Since no one won, the Control reward isn't taken, and an existing Control marker stays where it is.
Several experienced players agree, and the designer's suggestion for player order was relayed by a player.
Yes, any order — spice from one reward (or from a Leader trigger like Lady Margot's) can pay another reward's spice-for-VP option. But you must decide and pay when you receive the reward; you can't hold it for later. Between players, the rules set no order; if it matters, the designer suggests using the round's turn order.
The official FAQ's 'When you win a Conflict' entry covers this.
They can't be played if you tie for first, because then nobody won. If you receive such an Intrigue as your reward for winning, you may play it right away. You can order its effect among your Conflict rewards, so what it gives can help pay for a reward.
The rulebook's Sandworm Reward Doubling section applies to the rewards you take.
Yes — one or more sandworms in the Conflict doubles whatever reward you take, not just the winner's. Several worms still only double it.
The rulebook's Sandworm Reward Doubling section lists the exceptions.
Only the rewards printed on the Conflict card for your place. Gaining Control of a location isn't doubled, nor is the battle-icon VP. Effects that merely trigger on winning, such as Windtraps, other techs or 'when you win' Intrigues, aren't doubled either.
The rulebook's Sandworm Reward Doubling section says you may pay the cost a second time.
You get the option twice, and must pay for each: 0, 4 or 8 spice for 0, 1 or 2 extra VP, on top of the doubled free rewards. Doubling isn't all-or-nothing. If you can't pay twice, you get it once; for example, Battle for Arrakeen's recall-two-Spies option can't be done twice with only three Spies.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Each time you resolve it, the two picks must be different Factions. With a sandworm you resolve the whole reward twice, and the second pair may repeat the first: +2 with two Factions, +1 with four, or +2/+1/+1, but never more than 2 with one Faction.
The rulebook's Resolve Combat and Battle Icons sections cover this.
Only if the card lists VP in its reward, mostly the Conflict III cards. Separately, when you take a won card and it matches the battle icon of another face-up Conflict or Objective card in your supply, you flip both face down for 1 VP. That's why some Conflict I cards print a better second-place reward: the winner also gets the card and its icon.
The rulebook's Battle Icons section has you flip the matching pair face down.
No — your Objective card counts as a battle icon you start with, and when a match is made both cards (Objective included) flip face down for 1 VP. Face-down cards are used up for the rest of the game.
Only during the Endgame. You may then pair it with any one unpaired battle icon in your supply, flip both and gain 1 VP. Because it waits for the Endgame, it never scores mid-game, so it can't push you to 10 VP to trigger the end. You choose the order with your Endgame Intrigues, which can earn more points.
The designer answered this directly in 2023.
Yes — Objective cards count as Conflict cards you've won. Each of these Intrigues flips one unmatched face-up card showing its own icon or the wild icon for 1 VP, but not a card with a different icon or one already flipped.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — the card counts face-up Conflict cards only, and matched pairs are face down.
The rulebook's Units and Conflict section explains winning Control of a location.
You take Control: their marker goes back and yours replaces it. Some Conflict II cards award Control too, not only Conflict III cards.
The rulebook's Units and Conflict section describes this defensive bonus.
Right away, as the Conflict card is revealed at the start of the round: you may deploy one troop from your supply (not your garrison) straight into the Conflict.
The rulebook's Makers phase adds spice only to spaces without an Agent, and players agree the bonus is taken either way.
Yes — at Deep Desert or Hagga Basin you choose the base spice or (with Maker Hooks, and no Shield Wall protection on the Conflict) the sandworms, and either way you also take all the bonus spice piled on the space. Because your Agent was there, no new bonus spice is added in the Makers phase. Bonus spice has no upper limit.
The official FAQ's 'maker board space' entry lists them.
The spaces with the Maker (sandworm) icon: Deep Desert, Hagga Basin and Imperial Basin, plus Habbanya Erg on the six-player board. These are the spaces where spice is harvested and bonus spice builds up.
The rulebook's Recall phase triggers the Endgame.
No — the round is played out, including Combat, and the end is checked only in the Recall phase. A player who hit 10 mid-round but dropped below it by then doesn't trigger it. The game also ends after the round in which the last of the 10 Conflict cards is used, so 10 rounds is the maximum.
The official FAQ's Victory Points entry says so.
Yes — there's no cap. The track only goes to 12 because that's enough for most games.
The official FAQ's Endgame entry adds this tiebreaker.
The tied player who most recently took a Reveal turn wins. The official FAQ added this final tiebreaker after the rulebook's four (spice, Solari, water, garrisoned troops).
The designer ruled on this in 2023, and the official FAQ's contract entry agrees.
Yes to both — you must complete a contract as soon as you meet its condition, even if part of its reward is wasted (such as the Sardaukar contract's recall when you have no other Agent out). Every contract whose condition one action meets is completed together, including two contracts for the same space.
“Yes. You must, in fact, it’s mandatory to complete contracts.”
— Merakon, designer
The rulebook says spice from other sources counts, and the designer ruled in 2023 that only the highest threshold matters.
A Harvest contract counts all spice you gain on the turn you send an Agent to a Maker space, from the space, cards, Leaders or anything else. Each contract checks that total separately: harvesting 4 completes both a 3+ and a 4+ contract; you don't need 7.
The rulebook's Completing Contracts section says you must have had the contract when you sent your Agent.
No — you must already hold the contract when you send the Agent, so a contract taken after placement (for that space or a Harvest) waits for a later turn. A contract gained before you place your Agent, for example with a Plot Intrigue like Leverage, can be completed that turn. Contracts with other triggers, such as Immediate, work by their own timing.
The official FAQ's contract entry says you may order it freely with the space and card.
Yes — a contract completed by sending an Agent is just another effect of that turn, resolved in any order with the space and the Agent box. Gather Intelligence still comes first, and the space's cost must be paid before anything, so a contract's Solari can't pay for the space it names.
The rulebook's Taking Contracts section covers this.
It gives 2 Solari, as printed on the board. The spaces that show it stay usable, and the Conflict cards with a contract icon in their rewards don't need to be removed. With the module, the icon also reverts to 2 Solari once every contract has been taken.
The rulebook's Taking Contracts section covers the empty supply and sets no limit.
No — you can hold any number. If the contract supply runs out, taking a contract gives 2 Solari instead.
The rulebook's Taking Contracts section has you replace a contract as soon as one is taken.
No — take the first contract and refill the display right away, then choose the second from what's face up.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Its Agent effect lets you complete one of your contracts without meeting its condition: send your Agent anywhere, flip the contract and gain its reward, but not the effects of the space it names. Its Reveal effect (with 4+ completed contracts, trash it for Influence with each Faction) needs you to trash it with that ability; trashing it some other way gives nothing.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — they only check how many completed contracts you have; nothing is spent. And because Reveal effects resolve in any order, you can complete your fourth contract (say by acquiring a card) and then trash Delivery Agreement for its point on the same turn.
During combat, retreat one or two of your troops from the Conflict to your garrison, then take a contract. You need troops in the Conflict to play it.
The rulebook's 'Playing the CHOAM Module with Rise of Ix' section covers them.
They're the 10 starting contracts for games that combine CHOAM with Rise of Ix, whose board covers one of the contract spaces. At setup each player is dealt two, keeps one face up, and the rest go back in the box; they're never shuffled into the regular supply.
One experienced player answered this; no official ruling.
Yes — without Shaddam, shuffle them in with the other contracts. They're only set aside for him when he's in the game.
Automatically, without visiting the Swordmaster space. Each Rival card shows a Swordmaster value; as soon as the Rival's total resources (Solari, spice, water and Intrigue cards, each worth 1, in any mix) reach it, the Rival spends them and takes its Swordmaster. If it gets it mid-round it takes a third Agent turn that same round; if during combat, from next round. Some Rivals need far more than others, so timing varies.
Several experienced players agree, quoting the Rivals rules supplement.
With more than enough, it spends Solari first, then spice, then Intrigue cards, then water, keeping the leftovers. It's easiest to finish handing out all of a reward before checking. Until it has its Swordmaster it saves everything; afterwards it converts a single resource type into 1 VP the moment it holds 7 Solari, 7 spice, 3 water or 3 Intrigue cards, including right after a Conflict reward.
The designer confirmed this was the intention in 2023, and the official FAQ's Rivals entry says the same.
Yes — a Rival counts as a player for this, so once any Rival has its Swordmaster, human players pay 6. Rivals themselves never get a discount; they always need the value on their card.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No to both — a Rival ignores a space's cost (it can take Deep Desert with no water) and gets its resources from its House Hagal card and Conflicts, not from the space. It does everything else normally: gains Influence, takes Alliances, recruits and deploys troops. Maker spaces work differently (see the next question).
Several experienced players agree, quoting the Rivals rules supplement.
It always takes the bonus spice there, and if it doesn't summon sandworms (no Maker Hooks, or a Shield Wall–protected Conflict, as at Imperial Basin) it also takes the base spice. Its Maker-space House Hagal cards send it there only if the space has bonus spice; otherwise reveal another card.
The designer answered the same-turn question directly in 2024.
Only once it has Maker Hooks, which it gets by reaching 2 Fremen Influence and drawing a Sietch Tabr card. A Rival with hooks whose card sends it to a Maker space destroys the Wall and summons its sandworm(s) on that same turn.
The official FAQ's Rivals entry covers cards with two spaces.
Use only the space that matches the current conditions (the Rival's Influence, the Conflict level); if that space is occupied or the Rival doesn't qualify (e.g. Sietch Tabr without 2 Fremen Influence), ignore the card and reveal another, rather than taking the other option. The Spy card is the exception: the Rival places its Spy and then you reveal another card for its Agent.
The Faction where it has the least Influence; the priority icons at the bottom of its card only break ties. For 'choose two' it takes the lowest and then the next-lowest. A card or scheme saying 'gain an Alliance if able' overrides this when one step would win an Alliance.
The designer answered this directly in 2023.
No — it places the third Spy first, then recalls the other two and triggers its Scheme. So the third Spy can't use a post freed by that recall; if no valid post is open, the placement is ignored with no recall and no Scheme. A Rival can trigger its Scheme again later and can place more than one Spy in a turn.
On the empty Faction observation post of its highest-priority Faction, working left to right along its card; if none is open, it places no Spy. Rivals never recall Spies to Infiltrate.
The official FAQ's Solo Play entry covers this.
Yes — Rivals score the 2-Influence VP and take and lose Alliance tokens with their VP, just like players. They don't receive the bonus for reaching 4 Influence. The two Streamlined Rivals score nothing at all.
Yes, by default — a two-player Rival follows the solo Rival rules: it collects resources, buys its Swordmaster and then VP, scores Influence and Conflict VP, and can win. Only the two Streamlined Rivals (Lady Amber Metulli and Glossu 'The Beast' Rabban) never score. The designer intended those two for two-player games only, though solo players may use them unofficially.
Several experienced players agree, quoting the rules supplement's Game Variants page.
Nothing — these Streamlined Rivals stop collecting once they have their Swordmaster. Bonus spice on a space they visit goes back to the bank. They still occupy spaces and fight in Conflicts normally, but never gain VP.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Always second. The First Player marker alternates only between the two human players. In solo play, turn order rotates normally and a Rival can go first.
One Rival in a two-player game and two in solo. They run from the physical Rival and House Hagal cards in the box; the app is only an optional digital version of the same deck (with one extra Rival card).
One experienced player answered this; no official ruling.
Yes — each Rival starts with 1 water, which counts toward its Swordmaster.
Several experienced players agree, quoting the Rivals rules supplement.
At Expert or higher three variants become mandatory (you may use any of them at lower levels): Rivals draw two cards for swords in Conflict III, they redraw when sent to a Faction space where more Influence can't help them, and they use Expert Deployment. Under Expert Deployment a Rival fighting for a Conflict I or II card stops deploying once it leads every opponent by three units (sandworms count) and deploys everything it can for Conflict III. The original game used a lead of two.
Several experienced players agree, quoting the Rivals rules supplement.
Swords: right before combat, reveal one House Hagal card per Rival in the Conflict and add its swords; cards revealed during the Agent phase don't count. Troops: whenever a Rival's Agent goes to a Combat space it deploys up to two troops from its garrison, even if the card recruited none, plus any troops it recruited that turn (Signet Ring or Scheme troops included).
Several experienced players agree, quoting the Rivals rules supplement.
Sandworms double its rewards just as for a player. It always pays for an optional Conflict VP if it has the resources (or the Spies, for Battle for Arrakeen). It ignores trash rewards, having no deck. It can win Control and then collects the Control bonus and defensive troop like a player.
They don't take contracts; whenever a Rival would take one, it gains 2 Solari instead. With Rise of Ix, Rivals get nothing for the starting contract players choose at setup.
Yes, if it holds 4 or more — nothing in the solo rules forbids it. It's rare, because once a Rival has its Swordmaster it cashes in three Intrigue cards for a VP.
One experienced player answered this; no official ruling.
No — Rivals have no hand, so discard effects aimed at opponents do nothing to them.
The designer ruled on this directly in 2024 and 2025.
Yes — for Allies, the Emperor icon means the Great Houses and the Fremen icon means the Fringe Worlds, both for Agent icons and for Influence requirements. An Ally with 2 Fringe Worlds Influence can go to Sietch Tabr, and an Ally with 2 Great Houses Influence to Imperial Privilege, whichever team they're on. Commanders may use either their own personal Faction or the replacement one.
For the four main-board Factions, a Commander counts as having the higher of its two Allies' Influence — for Sietch Tabr, Shadow Alliance, 'if you have 2 Influence' conditions and so on. Each Ally qualifies only with its own Influence, so one Ally may be able to use a space the other can't. A Commander never holds a main-board Alliance token and doesn't count an Ally's Alliance for 'if you have an Alliance' effects.
The designer confirmed in 2023 that any-Faction effects can move a Commander's personal track; the rest follows the six-player rules.
The activated Ally takes the Commander's place for anything on the main board: Influence gained or lost there (and any 4-Influence bonus it triggers), troops, sandworms, swords and other Reveal benefits the Commander can't use itself. Influence on the Commander's own personal board stays with the Commander. Any-Faction effects may move that personal track, and Agents on Muad'Dib's personal board raise only his own Influence.
On an Agent turn, the arrow on the Agent token used decides: the first Ally in that direction. The Swordmaster token lets the Commander choose either Ally. On the Reveal turn the Commander picks one Ally, and every Reveal effect that turn (swords, troops, Plot Intrigues) applies to that Ally. Combat Intrigues played later can each help whichever Ally has a unit in the Conflict, but one card can't be split between them.
The designer confirmed in 2023 that the design-diary idea of non-blocking tokens isn't the rule.
Yes — they are the Commanders' Agents: they block the space they're on, can't go to an occupied space without Infiltrating, and return at Recall like any Agent.
Several experienced players agree, quoting the six-player supplement.
It depends whose swords they are. Swords a Commander gives an Ally are marked straight away and count if the Ally has a unit in the Conflict by combat. Swords an Ally reveals on its own Reveal turn with no unit there are lost, even if its Commander deploys troops for it later.
The designer confirmed in 2023 that Muad'Dib can get hooks for both Allies; the rest follows the Commander boards.
The Emperor's team can never gain Maker Hooks (it's printed on Shaddam's board), though it can still summon a worm with Unexpected Allies. On the Fremen team, when one Ally gains hooks the other gains them too, and Muad'Dib can visit Sietch Tabr to get them for both. Sandworms are summoned by the activated Ally, so that Ally must have hooks; Muad'Dib pays any cost such as Desert Call's water.
Two players read the rules this way and one disagrees; there is no official ruling.
Most likely only the Ally he activates on his Reveal turn, since the six-player rules treat that Ally's units as his; he isn't forced to activate the Ally with the worm. One player reads it as any Ally's sandworm counting.
The designer answered this directly in 2023.
Only the players on the other team; your teammates are never opponents.
The designer confirmed Infiltrating and smuggling between Allies in 2023.
Commanders and Allies share combat units and main-board Influence, but not Spies: a Commander can't recall an Ally's Spy (e.g. for Find Weakness). Alliance tokens are held by one player only. Teammates' Agents still block each other, and you may Infiltrate an Ally's space; Staban Tuek's smuggling also works on Allies.
The designer quoted the supplement's seating rule in 2023.
Muad'Dib and Shaddam are always the Commanders, sitting opposite each other; each Commander's Allies sit on either side of the enemy Commander, so turns alternate between teams (Muad'Dib, Emperor Ally, Fremen Ally, Shaddam, Fremen Ally, Emperor Ally). An Ally takes the first-player marker. Hands stay private: team talk must be out loud for everyone to hear.
The designer confirmed the reuse-and-lose case in 2024.
Each player's Swordmaster (and a Commander's third token) can be used only once per game. You may recall it and send it again in the round you use it, but it's lost at the end of that round either way. Its buyer still counts as having a Swordmaster, so later buyers pay 6. A Commander's Swordmaster swords go to the Ally it activates.
The designer pointed to the six-player Board Space Guide's text in 2024.
Yes — its Reinforce effect recruits three troops split as you choose between your two Allies, and any of them may go straight into the Conflict. That doesn't allow other Combat-space deployment that turn.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Commanders follow normal setup unless the supplement says otherwise, so everyone, Commanders included, starts with 1 water. The Commander pays any cost for a space it visits from its own supply; Allies can't chip in unless a specific card (such as Command Respect's Trade icon) lets them.
Several experienced players agree, quoting the six-player supplement.
Choose one teammate; each of you may give the other one or more of a single kind of trade good (Intrigue cards, spice, water or Solari), or nothing. It happens once per icon.
The designer answered this directly in 2024.
No — those Commander tracks don't count for Spy Satellites' endgame points.
The rulebook's combining section says Uprising is compatible with all earlier products.
Yes — Uprising is standalone, and the rulebook's combining section explains how to add Rise of Ix, Immortality and original-game Leaders and cards. Older content goes into Uprising more easily than Uprising content goes back onto the original board.
The rulebook's 'Adding Rise of Ix' section gives these instructions.
Fold the CHOAM overlay in half so it covers only Assembly Hall and Gather Support in Uprising's Landsraad. Treat each Ix board as having one observation post: one connects to Interstellar Shipping and Smuggling, the other to Tech Negotiation and Dreadnought.
The rulebook's combining section covers this, and the designer confirmed in 2023 that Calculated Hire can't be played once the Mentat is taken.
Remove Calculated Hire (and Sort Through the Chaos if you add the old Conflict cards), since Uprising has no Mentat. Calculated Hire can't be played anyway once the Mentat is gone. Use Uprising's own Reserve cards: no Arrakis Liaison, and Uprising's version of The Spice Must Flow, not the original. Any other Imperium and Intrigue cards can be mixed in.
The rulebook's combining section says Uprising is compatible and covers Ilesa Ecaz.
Yes — the starting decks are identical, so original Leaders drop straight in. Some need their own components: Ilesa Ecaz needs Foldspace cards (which only she may acquire), Rhombur and Hundro need Ix's dreadnoughts, techs and shipping track, and Piter, Genius Advisor needs Immortality. Armand Ecaz, Yuna and Tessia work as they are.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — only when he takes his seat, which is his first visit. Later visits for the High Council's repeat reward don't count.
The designer ruled on this in 2023, and the official FAQ's entry for Ariana agrees.
Only if you gain at least 1 spice from the Maker space itself, base or bonus; you then take 1 less and draw a card. Summoning a worm on a space with no bonus spice means you harvested nothing from the space, so she doesn't trigger, even if a card gives you spice. Unlike Harvest contracts, spice from cards doesn't count.
“You must send your Agent to a maker board space, and you must gain at least 1 spice from that board space (and you'll then receive 1 less spice to draw a card).”
— Merakon, designer
The official FAQ's entry for Count Ilban Richese covers this.
No — Ruthless Negotiator triggers only when you actually pay Solari for a board space's printed cost. Paying 0, or paying Solari for a card ability, doesn't count.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — Uprising has its own House Hagal deck, and the original cards refer to spaces that aren't on the Uprising board. Add the Rise of Ix or Immortality Hagal cards only when you play with those expansions.
The rulebook's 'Adding Immortality' section says to use the overlay.
Yes to both. You still cover Uprising's Research Station with the Immortality overlay, so you also make Immortality's usual starting-deck swap to Experimentation. The overlay space is still a Combat space, so you can deploy troops there.
The designer ruled on this directly in 2022.
The Voice can name any space, even an occupied one (useful against Infiltration). It blocks each opponent's next Agent this round: a player who passes with Bindu Suspension is still blocked when they place later. A player who places with Weirding Way's bonus turn can put that later Agent on the named space, since their next Agent was the one Weirding Way sent. Go by the card wording.
The designer corrected the rulebook on BGG, and the official FAQ's errata and Tech tiles entries agree.
On any of your own player turns, Agent or Reveal, like a Plot Intrigue. The first English Rise of Ix rulebook wrongly said Agent turns only. You can't use them during combat or on other players' turns, but you can use one on the turn you acquire it (or any later turn of yours).
“Indeed, the rulebook is slightly incorrect. The word “Agent” should be struck from the instructions for when you can use a flip tech.”
— Merakon, designer
The designer confirmed the timing in 2022, and the official FAQ's Tech tiles entry uses Spy Satellites as its example.
Choose one. Either pay 3 spice and trash the tile for 1 VP, once, during one of your own turns (not after combat resolves), or keep it and score its Endgame effect. Once it's trashed, the Endgame effect is gone.
The official FAQ's dreadnoughts entry covers this, and the designer confirmed the pushed-out case in 2023.
In the Conflict, yes; in the garrison, no. A deployed dreadnought counts as a unit even with no troops, so your swords count and you can play Combat Intrigues. A garrisoned one does nothing for the Conflict, and if your only dreadnought is pushed out, you can't play a Combat Intrigue to get back in.
The designer gave Advanced Weaponry as the example in 2023.
Dreadnoughts deploy like troops: from your garrison as one of the two extra units, or straight in if gained on a turn your Agent went to a Combat space. The Dreadnought space isn't a Combat space, so same-turn deployment needs a commission effect while you're at a Combat space, such as the Advanced Weaponry Intrigue or Ix-Guild Compact at Heighliner. Recruiting troops never gives you a dreadnought instead.
The designer confirmed this in 2022, and the official FAQ's troops entry names techs and the Shipping track.
Yes, if your Agent went to a Combat space that turn — every troop recruited that turn from any source, before or after placing the Agent, can be deployed, plus up to two units from the garrison. On other turns they go to your garrison. Troop Transports is a partial exception: the troops it lets you recruit from the Shipping track may be deployed even without a Combat space, but other troops recruited that turn may not.
Several experienced players agree, citing the Rise of Ix rulebook.
No — dreadnoughts are units but not troops. Rise of Ix changed only the Combat-space deployment rule to say 'units'; every card that says troops still means troops only. Cards that say units or dreadnoughts can affect them, and Desert Ambush can force an enemy dreadnought to retreat, though only your deployed troops count toward it.
Several experienced players agree, quoting the Rise of Ix rulebook.
Yes, it's mandatory. Place one dreadnought on a Control location that doesn't already hold a dreadnought, covering any Control marker there; any other dreadnought of yours in that Conflict returns to your garrison. You must place it even if you already control every location. The location needn't match the Conflict card, and placing your Control marker from the reward is a separate step in either order.
Several experienced players agree, citing the Rise of Ix rulebook's example.
It controls until the end of the next Combat phase, then returns to your garrison, uncovering any Control marker. The new winner places first, so a location still holding last round's dreadnought can't be chosen. A controlling dreadnought is locked there and can't be deployed to that round's Conflict. If players tie for first, nobody won, so no dreadnought takes control.
The designer confirmed in 2026 that dreadnought control earns the defensive bonus.
The dreadnought's owner, for as long as it's there: the Solari or spice when anyone visits, and the one-troop defensive bonus if a Conflict for that location is revealed. The defensive bonus is always a troop from your supply, never a dreadnought.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Normally no — once commissioned they move between your garrison, the Conflict and controlled locations for the rest of the game. Only a specific effect, such as Detonation Devices sacrificing one, removes it. With two dreadnoughts in a won Conflict, sacrificing one replaces the control placement, and the other goes to your garrison.
The designer answered this directly in 2022.
No — the tiebreaker wasn't changed for Rise of Ix and counts troops only. (The official FAQ later added a final tiebreaker: the player who most recently took a Reveal turn.)
No — buying a tech is always optional, and you may visit the Dreadnought space and take neither, as long as you pay its 3 Solari. At Tech Negotiation, if you don't buy a tech you must place a Negotiator instead; that fizzles only if you have no troops in your supply.
The official FAQ's troops entry says Negotiators can't be recruited; players agree on the rest.
Several players can have Negotiators in the negotiation area at once; only the Tech Negotiation space itself is limited to one Agent. Negotiators aren't in your supply, can't be 'recruited' back, and leave Ix only when spent on a tech. When a tile is bought, the next in its stack is flipped face up immediately.
The official FAQ's Assassination Mission entry says such cards need another means to be trashed; players agree on the rest.
Unload gives you the card's Reveal effect immediately whenever that card is discarded from your hand by an effect (even an opponent's) or trashed from anywhere, in addition to revealing it normally. It doesn't let the card trash or discard itself; you need another card, space, Intrigue or tech to do it. Playing it for an Agent turn ignores Unload, and moving it to the discard pile at Clean Up isn't discarding.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — each trigger is separate. Reveal it for its effect and then trash it (e.g. with a Plot Intrigue), or discard it from hand and later trash it from your discard pile, and you gain the effect each time.
The designer ruled on this in 2023, matching the Rise of Ix rulebook's Unload example.
Right after paying the cost and before the effect after the arrow. So its gains are available for that effect, but you can't use the effect's result to boost the Unload. One discard pays only one cost; Holoprojectors and Truthsayers together need two.
Several experienced players agree, citing the Rise of Ix rulebook's card notes.
Yes — the self-trash is mandatory and triggers Unload, so you recruit its 2 troops and deploy them straight to the Conflict even if you didn't visit a Combat space. Its 'gain 2 Influence instead of 1' applies only to the Faction space you visited, as one effect.
No — 'gain 2 Influence instead of 1' and Shifting Allegiances' double gain are each one atomic effect. You may take them at any point in your turn but can't insert another effect in the middle. (Using Finesse to step down and back up separately is fine and can re-earn a bonus.)
The official FAQ's Shifting Allegiances entry covers this.
You may lose and gain with the same Faction (netting +1 there). But losing 1 Influence is a cost you must actually pay, so you can't choose a Faction where you're at the bottom.
The designer ruled on this in 2022, and the official FAQ has an entry for Yuna.
Yes, once per separate gain on your own Agent or Reveal turn: Solari from the card you played and from the space you visited are separate gains, so each gets +1, and the same goes for, say, a freighter reward and Windfall. Solari gained outside your turns (at round start, in combat, or when someone else's effect pays you) gets no bonus.
The designer ruled on this in 2021–2022, and the official FAQ has an entry for Armand Ecaz.
You need at least two Agents on spaces with any of the three listed icons, in any mix; the Mentat counts as one of your Agents. Then, at any point in your Reveal turn, you may trash one card in play, including one you've already used for its Reveal effects (you keep them). Cards acquired that turn go to your discard pile, not into play, and cards in the discard pile can't be chosen.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
To your discard pile, immediately, like any acquired card, and the Imperium Row refills at once.
The designer ruled on parts of this in 2022, and the official FAQ has an entry for Ilesa Ecaz.
After drawing, you choose a card to set aside; this is mandatory, and while aside it can't be discarded or trashed. At the start of your second turn you reveal it and take it back. If you use it to send an Agent that turn, you gain 1 spice if it has exactly one Agent icon, otherwise 1 Solari. Its Reveal box isn't used, since that's an Agent turn. Play it later, or take a Reveal turn first, and you get no bonus.
The designer ruled on this directly in 2021 and 2022.
No — you must pay the space's full cost to send the Agent, and the bonus resolves only afterwards. It can help pay a cost in the card's own Agent box, such as her Signet Ring.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
At setup put a Snooper on the 2 space of each Influence track. When you reach one, move it to the topmost empty slot on Tessia's card and take that reward once. 'The bonus from this token's Influence track' is that Faction's 4-Influence bonus (water, Intrigue, Solari or troops), not a VP. You still score the normal 2-Influence VP. If a reward needs a discard and your hand is empty, the reward is lost.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Lose 1 Influence with any Faction where you have some, to gain 1 with a Faction whose track still holds your Snooper; it's always one for one. Dropping below 2 loses that VP as usual. Once all four Snoopers are collected, the ring does nothing.
The designer ruled on this directly in 2022 and 2023.
You, the player of the card: for each troop you deploy during that Agent turn (all of them that turn, not only after playing it), choose one enemy unit to retreat, from any opponents, dreadnoughts included. It applies only to that turn. Sandworms can't be retreated, since they can never enter a garrison.
The designer ruled on this in 2022, and the official FAQ's infiltration entry agrees.
Empty spaces, yes — infiltration lets you also go where an enemy Agent is, but you can use the icon normally. Your own Agent's space, no; the Mentat counts as your Agent for this until round end. Icons added by Dispatch an Envoy don't gain infiltration.
The designer answered this in 2023, and the official FAQ has an entry for Dispatch an Envoy.
Any time a Plot Intrigue can be played, including your Reveal turn or after sending an Agent, but icons added after the Agent is sent don't help that placement. It adds only the Faction icons the card lacks; it never removes icons or adds a duplicate.
The designer worked through this example in 2022, and the official FAQ's Chaumurky entry agrees.
Yes — with tied VP, Chaumurky's owner simply wins; spice, Solari, water and troops are never compared, so the other player's Intrigue spice doesn't matter. It also applies when Endgame bonuses create the tie.
The designer confirmed this for Holtzman Engine in 2022, and the official FAQ's Corner the Market entry agrees.
Every copy you still own, wherever it is: hand, deck, discard pile or in play. Trashed copies don't count. Corner the Market compares your total with each opponent's separately, and you need strictly more than every one of them.
The designer answered the removal case directly in 2022.
No — its swords were gained when you revealed it; you lose only the removed dreadnought's own strength. Artillery adds one sword per revealed card that gives swords, so Full-Scale Assault counts once however many dreadnoughts it counted.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Rewards come only when you recall your freighter, for its space and those below, not as it moves up. Each freighter icon is a separate step: advance, or recall if you choose. From the top you can recall for the rewards and then advance again with the second icon.
The official FAQ's 'paying a cost' entry limits each arrow cost to once.
No — each exchange is a cost→effect you can pay once, so the winner gets at most 1 VP plus one bought with 6 Solari and one with 4 spice. Solari gained earlier in the reward step (e.g. from Strategic Push) can pay for it. For a Rival, the player decides whether it spends.
Several experienced players agree; the Uprising rulebook's combining section names Economic Supremacy for Epic.
Epic mode uses no Conflict I, five Conflict II and five Conflict III cards (the standard game is 1/5/4), and the end-game trigger moves from 10 to 12 VP. There are still at most 10 rounds; if the Conflict deck runs out, most VP wins with the usual tiebreakers. Uprising has only four Conflict III cards, so its rulebook says to add Economic Supremacy for Epic.
The official FAQ's errata adds this step to the Rise of Ix rulebook.
Remove the two Hall of Oratory and two Rally Troops cards, whose spaces the Ix overlay covers, and add Rise of Ix's House Hagal cards. The first English printing left this step out.
The designer answered these in 2022 and 2024.
A Rival pays spice for tech, buying the most expensive Hagal-marked tile it can afford (its Negotiators reduce the price), and gets the tile's acquire bonus. If it has no spice it buys nothing, and tiles are refreshed only if no visible tile has the Hagal symbol. Uprising's Rivals don't spend spice on tech until they have their Swordmaster.
Training Drones: on the Rival's first turn each round, deploying the troop straight away if that turn's space is a Combat space. Spy Satellites: it spends 3 spice on its turn to trash the tile for a VP, so it can't if it gains the spice only in the final combat; otherwise it scores the Endgame effect. Troop Transports: it gets the extra troop deployed along with the others.
The designer ruled on the Shipping case in 2021, and the official FAQ's Rivals entry agrees.
It pays for tech but not for dreadnoughts, since it ignores board-space costs, and it pays any cost on its Leader's Signet Ring. If its card's Interstellar Shipping option is blocked, it ignores the 0–1 Influence alternative and draws another card. In two-player games the Rival gathers no resources, so it never buys tech.
The official FAQ's Solo Play entry settles this, replacing the designer's earlier note.
By strength, not troop count: in the original solo rules, on a Conflict I or II card the Rival stops deploying once it leads by 4 or more strength, counting dreadnoughts. Rivals prefer to deploy dreadnoughts over troops. The designer's 2021 note that the written rule counted only troops was replaced by this FAQ entry.
Only Prince Rhombur Vernius and Viscount Hundro Moritani, and only as solo Rivals; mix them freely with the other Leaders. When Rival Rhombur activates his Signet Ring he acquires tech if he can, otherwise uses the Tech Negotiation icon; Rival Hundro always spends 1 spice (if he has it) for the Freighter icon.
The official FAQ's Rivals entry covers the tie.
The one where it has the least Influence. If several are tied, the player holding the First Player marker (or the next player after a Rival holding it) chooses. It also recruits the troops.
Most replies read it this way, but one player disagrees and there is no official ruling.
Most likely yes, as long as you pay its cost of losing a troop (from your garrison or the Conflict), but you gain no Influence and can't claim it on a later turn. One player reads the Faction space as a condition for playing it at all.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Only in the Combat Intrigue window. Its 2 Solari depends on winning the Conflict you added its swords to, so you can't play it after the result is known.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — once acquired it's active. Windtraps bought with a Shipping reward from that Conflict pays its water for the win, since you choose the order of your rewards. Restricted Ordnance bought during your Reveal turn gives its 4 swords if you hold a High Council seat.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — victory is checked only in the Recall phase, so everything in the Combat phase still happens, including Detonation Devices.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — their VP comes from their own Reveal ability, where trashing is the cost; trashing them any other way gives nothing (only Unload cards reward being trashed). You can order effects so the third tech is bought first and then reveal-trash Ixian Engineer.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — Guild Accord lowers the Heighliner's cost, so you pay 4 up front rather than paying 6 and getting 2 back.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
It's separate from your Agent turn: you discard a card to activate it, and that card isn't used to send an Agent. Its troop deploys only if your Agent went to a Combat space that turn; otherwise it goes to your garrison.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — putting an Intrigue on the bottom is the optional cost of drawing a new one. Without one to pay, you can still play the card; you just don't draw.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — the discard is the cost, and the trash it pays for is optional like any trash effect.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — you gain the bonus for each Faction where you have at least 2 Influence.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
When you reveal it (or trigger its Unload) you may place up to two Negotiators on Ix; the Tech Negotiation space itself lets you buy a tech at a discount or place one. Discarding other cards for its Agent effect doesn't trigger its own Unload; that needs Ix-Guild Compact itself to be discarded or trashed.
No — it isn't an Unload card. With 2 Fremen Influence, its Agent effect has you discard a different card from your hand for 2 spice.
One experienced player explained the card; no official ruling.
You take your next turn (Agent or Reveal) right away, before anyone else acts. It doesn't give you extra turns overall; you just act twice in a row.
One experienced player walked through setup; no official ruling.
During setup, after Leaders are chosen and before round 1, so before the first Conflict card is revealed and before anyone draws their opening hand.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Not by the rules — several Ix cards refer to the dreadnoughts, Shipping track or tech, so the expansion isn't modular. Mixing them in anyway is a house rule.
Probably — buying tech is optional in the physical game, so you can play it and buy nothing (the digital app doesn't allow this). One player argues an Intrigue must have some effect to be played.
The designer answered the reward and ordering cases in 2023, and Dire Wolf support confirmed the timing.
When its condition happens: at the end of a Conflict, as you return at least three troops from the Conflict to your supply, whether you won or lost. That's outside the normal Combat Intrigue window. If you receive Harvest Cells as a Conflict reward you can play it immediately, and if several players play it they resolve in turn order. Troops lost earlier by a card like Staged Incident don't count.
Most players say no — it triggers when you lose three or more troops, so both copies can check the same three. One player reads it as three troops per card.
Yes to both — Reclaimed Forces counts as a Tleilaxu card you acquire, so Harvest Cells can take it. Once combat resolves, the troops are back in your supply, so they can become specimens before you resolve your Conflict reward.
Each icon is a separate effect, and a cost-arrow binds its two sides into one. Written sentences are separate when they stand alone (Power Play's 'Trash this card'), but a block whose sentences depend on each other (Imperium Ceremony) is one effect. Repeated icons such as Tleilaxu Master's research icons are separate effects too.
'Gain two Influence instead of one' applies only to the Influence for visiting a Faction space this turn, never to Influence from Intrigues, Shipping or other cards. 'Trash this card' is a separate, mandatory effect, so you can trash Power Play another way first (e.g. Selective Breeding or Beguiling Pheromones, for an extra Influence) and its own trash just fizzles. Grafted to Ghola it still gives two, not four.
The designer ruled on this in 2022–2023, and the official FAQ has an entry for Beguiling Pheromones.
It trashes either itself or the card grafted to it. That trash can't double as another card's cost: trashing a grafted Imperial Spy with Pheromones doesn't draw the Intrigue. If Imperial Spy trashes itself for its Intrigue, Pheromones must trash itself, though you still gain the extra Influence.
The designer ruled in 2022 that one trash can't pay two costs.
No — each cost needs its own payment, and a card can only be trashed once. Use a different card for each, for example Foldspace for one and the card it drew for the other. The same goes for two lose-troop costs: Staged Incident and Gruesome Sacrifice in one combat need five troops in total.
The designer ruled on the end-of-turn trash and the not-in-play status in 2022.
Graft Usurp to one of the five Imperium Row cards (not Reserve or Tleilaxu Row cards) or to a card in your hand. You use the grafted card's Agent icons and Agent box, not its Acquire bonus. A Row card grafted this way is trashed at the end of your turn wherever it has ended up, triggering any Unload. It isn't 'in play', so effects that act on cards in play can't return or trash it.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
A Graft card is played together with exactly one other card from your hand at the start of an Agent turn; the pair acts as one card for that turn, and you may use either card's icons (one card may have none). You can't graft a card drawn mid-turn onto the card already played. For trash effects and when they go to the discard pile, they are two separate cards.
The official FAQ's Ghola entry covers Kwisatz Haderach and Carryall.
Ghola repeats the other card's Agent box. With Kwisatz Haderach you draw two cards but still send only one Agent. With Carryall the doubling applies twice, so you get four times the base spice. A copied effect resolves twice in sequence (Imperium Ceremony: look at two, keep one, then again). 'Instead of' effects like Power Play don't stack.
The designer ruled on both cases, and the official FAQ has an entry for Chairdog.
Chairdog installs its effect on the other card when played, so even if Chairdog is trashed before your Reveal turn, that card still returns to your hand at the start of it. Once you've declared the Reveal turn you must finish it: a returned Kwisatz Haderach can't be used for an Agent turn.
The designer explained this in 2022, and the official FAQ's Tleilaxu track entry agrees.
No — the Bene Tleilax aren't a Faction, and there are only four. Effects that move Influence with any Faction, Shifting Allegiances, Leto's Signet Ring or 'Influence with 3 Factions' checks don't touch the Tleilaxu track, which uses its own icon.
The designer ruled on this directly in 2023.
No — the combat icon only makes the space count as a Combat space, so it adds nothing where you could already deploy (though you may still pick that option, for instance to avoid drawing). Elsewhere it lets you deploy as usual: troops recruited that turn plus up to two from your garrison, including a dreadnought commissioned that turn.
Specimens are your troop cubes taken from your supply; with none there you gain none, and you can't convert troops from your garrison or the Conflict. Cubes are limited and shared with troops. You spend specimens in your Reveal turn to acquire Tleilaxu cards, or when a card says so; trading a specimen for Solari is only a card example, not a standing rule.
Several experienced players agree, citing the Immortality rulebook.
During your Reveal turn, paying specimens instead of Persuasion, alongside any Imperium Row purchases. They go to your discard pile, and the Tleilaxu Row refills, so you can buy several, including Reclaimed Forces repeatedly, as long as you have the specimens.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
To your garrison: it's acquired on your Reveal turn, with no Combat space, so they can reach the Conflict only via an effect that deploys garrison troops. The specimens you paid return to your supply, so they can be the troops you recruit even if your supply was empty.
Each research icon moves you one space and you resolve that space before the next move, so moves can chain through spaces that grant more research. Any number of players can share a space. Past the end, each extra research icon draws a card (revealed at once if it's your Reveal turn), while extra Tleilaxu icons past that track's end are wasted. The long lines mark the sections used by some cards and the Genetics bonuses.
No — pay for it when you resolve that research step. You can resolve other effects first to gather Solari, but you can't hold the step open.
Cards with tiered rewards stack them: Vicious Talents gives 2, 4 or 6 swords, and Disguised Bureaucrat nothing, 1 spice, or 1 spice plus an Influence. Cards with a single threshold don't double: Subject X-137 still advances you once. Trashing a card on the track is optional.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Grey icons are active only when the card's condition is met: another Bene Gesserit card in play for Long Reach, more deployed troops than each opponent for Show of Strength. Without them the card has no icons and can't send an Agent on its own; graft it or add icons. If it is played, its other Agent effects apply regardless (Long Reach's Influence, Show of Strength's draw two). Clandestine Meeting likewise has no icons of its own.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes to both — Long Reach itself counts as the other Bene Gesserit card in play for Ghola's copy, so the pair gains the icons. With Ghola the 'choose two' Influence happens twice; grafted to any other card it happens once.
Players link an official answer, but it isn't in the cited posts and some players disagree.
Probably not — an official answer that players link says no: once trashed, the card is out of play and its remaining Agent box effects are gone. Resolve what you want from it before trashing. Some players argued the effects stay pending after trashing.
Several experienced players agree, quoting the Immortality rulebook.
Once per game, at any point during one of your own turns (Agent or Reveal, before or after placing your Agent): return it to the box to discard the whole Imperium Row and deal a new one.
Immortality suggests a 'Go to 11' variant for longer games (in a four-player game, start at 0 and play to 10). Rise of Ix's Epic mode plays to 12, and combining Epic with that variant makes it 13.
Solo Rivals advance on the Tleilaxu track via the beetle icons on Immortality's House Hagal cards and collect its bonuses as well as its points. Two-player Rivals use neither track; they get only what their House Hagal card shows. The new Carthag Hagal cards are marked 1P, so two-player games keep the originals.
Yes — nothing limits it. You can return and replay it on later Agent turns and still reveal it at the end.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — only the Agent you sent on this Agent turn. You send one Agent per turn, and a round has many turns.
One experienced player answered this; no official ruling.
No, once — 'if you gain spice this turn' is a condition, unlike 'whenever' triggers such as Yuna Moritani's that fire each time.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — the Rival's swords come from a card revealed before combat, not an Intrigue played in it, so Counterattack's option reacts only to Combat Intrigues played by human opponents.
The designer ruled on this in 2025, and the official FAQ's Chani (Leader) entry agrees.
Yes — troops going back to your supply during Conflict resolution are lost, whether you won or not, so Chani's track advances for each. Only troops count (Sardaukar Commanders included); sandworms and dreadnoughts don't. Each separate source of losing or retreating troops is handled on its own. Intrigues that need you to lose troops, like Staged Incident, can't use these end-of-combat losses.
“Troops returned to your supply during Conflict Resolution are indeed considered "lost."”
— Merakon, designer
One space per troop lost or retreated, collecting each space's reward as you reach it. When the token reaches the final space you take the water and reset it to the start; any extra steps from that same instance are lost. Since each loss or retreat effect counts separately, ordering them well wastes fewer steps.
Players disagree and there is no official ruling.
Deploying first and then retreating with the ring is fine, since you order your Agent-turn effects. Retreating and then deploying the same troops again is disputed: some players allow it if the turn still lets you deploy, but others point out a Combat space lets each troop be deployed only once per turn, with the two-from-garrison allowance used up by the first deployment. There is no official ruling.
Command is mandatory, like Fremen Bond; the 'you may' in the rulebook is an error. With 6+ Persuasion, Bombast gives its Solari and trashes itself. Since it's trashed only once, choose: let Command trash it, or trash it first another way (e.g. Calculus of Power) and lose the Command reward.
The designer ruled on this directly in 2025.
Yes — a Sardaukar Commander is a troop worth 2 strength, so lose and retreat effects can hit it (and the player losing a troop picks which one). But a plain troop-cube icon (Suspensor Suits, Double Cross) recruits a regular troop, never a Commander. Rivals with Rise of Ix still deploy dreadnoughts before any troop, Commanders included.
“They are troops.”
— Merakon, designer
Several experienced players agree, quoting the Bloodlines rulebook.
Once per turn, on any space, you may pay 2 Solari to recruit one Commander from your supply; that's the only way they leave your supply. On a turn your Agent went to a Combat space it counts as recruited this turn, so it deploys on top of the two garrison units; one already in your garrison counts as one of those two. Separately, a space with a Commander lets you acquire it. After combat they return to your supply to be recruited again; the 7th Commander is only used in four-player games.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No, it's not a space cost: you can pay it with Solari the space just gave you, it isn't reduced by Leto's discount, Navigation Chamber or similar, and it doesn't trigger Ilban Richese. Commander discounts like Honor Guard and Sardaukar High Command stack, down to 0. Effects that acquire and recruit a Commander directly (e.g. trashing Sardaukar Standard) are free, and Plasteel Blades triggers either way.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — unrecruited Commanders aren't troops in your supply for that purpose, and recruiting one costs 2 Solari on your own turn. The defensive bonus happens as the Conflict is revealed, not on your turn, so it deploys a regular troop.
Skills are active only while you have at least one Commander in the Conflict. Reveal-turn skills (Driven, Desperate) are gained during your Reveal turn and kept even if the Commanders later leave. Strength skills (Loyal, Fierce, Canny) are checked when combat resolves, so a Commander must still be there then. Desperate's trash is an optional cost, and you can't take the same skill twice.
The designer answered this directly in 2025.
Not by default — you don't visit a Combat space on a Reveal turn, so it goes to your garrison. A Combat icon on a card played that turn (such as Adaptive Tactics) lets you deploy troops recruited that turn plus up to two from your garrison.
The designer quoted the Bloodlines rulebook's instruction in 2025.
Put one on the Dreadnought space. In a four-player game put the other on Tech Negotiation; otherwise return it to the box. The six-player game has its own placement, starting with Military Support.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
The Ixian Embassy is how you buy tech when you don't have Rise of Ix; with Ix, use its board and mix all tech tiles. Without the Ix overlays, remove the tiles that need them (Detonation Devices, Troop Transports). Modules can be used separately: without Commanders, remove the Commander tech and the cards referring to them. Face-up tech only changes when one is acquired.
Different discounts stack, and the High Council seat's −1 applies to every tech purchase, down to 0 spice. A revisit's 2 spice plus the seat discount can make a tech 3 cheaper. Two separate 'acquire a tech at −1' icons are two separate purchases, though, so they can't combine into −2 on one tile.
Several experienced players agree, citing the rules supplement.
Only a board space's own cost, by 1 (not below 0). That includes the chosen cost at Spice Refinery or Gather Support, so you get the 4 Solari for 0 spice. Buying a tech or a Sardaukar Commander isn't the space's cost, so it doesn't help there.
Several experienced players agree, quoting the Bloodlines rulebook.
The Bloodlines rulebook lists it: some tech tiles, one Commander skill, the new Conflict cards and contracts, and several Intrigue, Imperium and Leader cards, mostly those using spies or CHOAM. Commanders go on a different space (Conspire). Everything else, including Commanders, most techs and Command, works.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Mostly — all except Kota Odax, who needs tech tiles. Hasimir Fenring's deep-cover Spy icon simply lets you place a Spy on a post where other players already have one (any number of them), but not where you do.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Whenever she would summon a sandworm, from a space, Imperium card or Intrigue such as Unexpected Allies, she takes her replacement bonus instead, once per worm. So she needs Maker Hooks where the summon requires them. It works even for Conflicts the Shield Wall protects, and detonating the Wall stays optional. Her spice isn't 'bonus spice' for cards like Thumper.
Several experienced players agree, citing the Bloodlines clarifications.
Tuek's Sietch collects bonus spice like a Maker space: 1 is added in the Makers phase if no Agent is there, and the space has no observation post. Esmar's ring can take 1 accumulated bonus spice from any Maker space. Per the Bloodlines clarifications, he can place that spice on Tuek's Sietch and collect it with the Agent he sent there the same turn. Spice placed while another player's Agent is already there stays for the next visitor.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
The Agent it moves may join the Conflict even from a non-Combat space, but no troops deploy from there. It's a unit, not a troop, with 3 strength whenever you have your Swordmaster, whatever the order you got them in. It isn't lost if you lose. Once it leaves its space you lose that space's Reveal-turn bonus (e.g. Assembly Hall's Persuasion).
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Her passive gives every card you play Spy access, so most players let even icon-less cards like The Spice Must Flow send an Agent to a space you're spying on. In exchange, when she visits a space she spies on and doesn't need that Spy to Infiltrate, she must recall it to Gather Intelligence. Her ring offers placing a Spy on a green post or paying 1 spice for one anywhere, and you may decline to pay.
He draws one only at the start of each round, never in place of a normal Intrigue draw. They stay in hand like Intrigues (accumulating, and stealable) until played, then are set aside rather than discarded; with 12 of them they never need reshuffling. Effects that return Intrigues and draw replacements (e.g. Sonic Snoopers) draw from the regular deck. The round-start draw isn't on his turn, so it doesn't trigger Suspensor Suits.
The official FAQ's Litany Against Fear entry covers the red box.
They're used at the start of your turn as the only thing you do: put the card into play (Litany draws a card) and your turn ends, which delays your Reveal turn. You can't play other Intrigues first. Played normally on a Reveal turn, or given Agent icons (e.g. by Urgent Shigawire), Litany's red box is ignored.
The designer ruled on both cases in 2025.
The next Bene Gesserit card you play this round gains all Agent icons (Spy Agent icon included) and 'draw a card' in its Agent box. Litany Against Fear's put-into-play ability isn't playing it, so the boost waits for your next Bene Gesserit card. Modifications are lost when a card changes zones: a boosted Weirding Woman that returns to your hand loses them.
You arrange them before round 1, without seeing your opening hand. Each triggers once, when revealed by reaching 2 Influence (not every round); once all four are revealed, further triggers do nothing. Its 'different Faction' must differ from the trigger and already have 2+ Influence. Triggers aren't limited to turns, so Panopticon's Endgame Influence can reveal one. Her draw for gaining 3+ spice works on Agent or Reveal turns, but not in combat.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Trashing an Intrigue card doesn't count; only your deck's cards do. His play area is every card you've played this round, on Agent turns and your Reveal turn, until Clean Up.
It replaces them: all your battle icons, wild ones included, count only as Ornithopters. They pair with Ornithopter cards and the Ornithopter Intrigue but no longer match their printed icon.
“It overwrites.”
— Merakon, designer
Yes — it completes whenever you take an Alliance after taking the contract: the same Agent turn (take the contract, then resolve the Influence) or from a Conflict reward.
Several experienced players agree, quoting the Bloodlines rulebook.
No — you can take it only if you have an Intrigue to trash. It completes on taking: trash one, draw a new Intrigue and a card. You can't take it just to deny it.
The official FAQ's False Orders entry covers this.
Each affected opponent moves their Spy to an empty post not connected to the space your Agent went to, and you place one Spy on a connected post. You can play it with no enemy Spies there, but not to put a Spy where you already have one. Played after your Agent is placed, it's too late to Gather Intelligence with that Spy.
Several experienced players agree, citing the designer's cost→effect ruling.
No — using the tech resolves both parts together, so its trash works only if you'd already recalled a Spy that turn. The Solari can still help you afford a space.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
It adds all four Faction icons to your Signet Ring; the ring keeps its own. Its acquire icon resolves your Leader's Signet Ring effect once (you don't get the card). For Lady Jessica you choose before or after flipping, but get only that side's effect.
The official FAQ's Reveal turn entry covers cards drawn after the Reveal turn.
The card stays in hand into the next round, on top of your usual five. Commanders never win Conflicts, so 'when you win' effects like Planetary Array never trigger for them, even when their Ally wins.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Rapid Dropships' troops can be deployed right away if you visited a Combat space that turn. Suspensor Suits triggers only for Intrigues gained on your turn (not Conflict rewards) and deploys only the troop it recruits, nothing if your supply is empty.
Players disagree and there is no official ruling.
Most players say yes — the clarification says you lose one Influence only if possible. One reads it as forcing the other option; there's no official ruling. The icon above its troop is Shield Wall detonation, and Rivals can't acquire this tile.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — with 6+ Persuasion revealed you may trash Engineered Miracle itself to acquire an Imperium Row card for free; acquiring doesn't mean paying its cost. Whatever it generated that Reveal turn, such as Influence, stays with you after it's trashed.
One experienced player answered this; no official ruling.
Yes — its trash can target any of your cards in hand, play or discard, itself included, and its own 'when this card is trashed' effect then resolves as usual.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — trashing another Intrigue card is the cost of playing it, so Unnatural can't be the card you trash.
One experienced player answered this; no official ruling.
No, one — it checks whether you completed a contract this turn. It would say 'for each' if it scaled.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — the trash icon stays optional. With a Sardaukar Commander in the Conflict you may trash two cards, one or none.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Move it to a different observation post. If several Spies must move, resolve them in player order.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — Objective cards count as Conflict cards you've already won, so an Objective plus one face-up Conflict card qualifies.
One experienced player read the tile; one other guessed differently. No official ruling.
From the board — the tile says so.
One experienced player answered this; no official ruling.
No — it's played in the normal Combat Intrigue window, before the Conflict resolves.
No — there's no top card to look at, and you can't reshuffle just to create one, so it can't be played then.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Order doesn't matter — Spy Satellites is scored on your final Influence, after Panopticon raises it.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — once acquired the tile is active, so order your effects to acquire it first and then complete the contract, including one completed by its acquire effect.
New Rival cards cover the new Leaders. Rivals ignore Sardaukar Commander skills; a Commander a Rival gets counts as 4 strength and serves for a single combat only. Rivals buy only Rival-marked techs, always get Command bonuses, and gain Delivery Bay, Panopticon and Training Depot's Reveal effects right after their final Agent turn. Once a Rival has its Swordmaster it spends spice on tech, and from the first Conflict III card it also converts 7 spice into a VP.
Several experienced players agree, citing the Bloodlines rulebook.
Yes — some Leaders even refer to teammates. Muad'Dib's team can't acquire or recruit Commanders, and the Bloodlines rulebook places five Commanders starting with Military Support. Y'rkoon has Navigation cards instead of a Signet Ring.