Fantastic Factories FAQ
57 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup and Components
Market Phase
- Can players look through the blueprint and contractor discard piles?
- What happens when the contractor draw pile runs out?
- After you hire a contractor, do you keep the card or discard it?
- When does a contractor's "start of the next work phase" effect apply?
- Can you hire a contractor by discarding its matching blueprint without paying its extra cost?
Work Phase
- Can you mix building, placing dice and activating cards in any order during the work phase?
- Can you use the same basic action, such as Research, more than once in a work phase?
- How much extra does the matching bonus give when three dice of the same value are placed?
- Do matching-dice bonuses still apply when you place dice one at a time?
- Can you keep unplaced dice on your cards or headquarters for the next work phase?
- Must you place all your dice at once during the work phase?
- When building a blueprint, do you also pay the resource cost of the discarded blueprint?
- Do you pay a building's build cost again each time you activate it?
- Can you build a second copy of a building you already have, or a card with the same name?
- What is the tool symbol on a card, and does it relate to its colour or type?
- When a factory like the Robot gives an extra die, can you use that die in the current work phase?
- Can the same card be activated more than once in a turn or round?
- Do you pick up your dice from your headquarters board at the end of each round?
Card Clarifications
- Does Scrap Yard reduce the metal you need to build a building?
- Does Scrap Yard give its metal again if you build a second building in the same round?
- Can a Replicator in your compound copy a Robot from the marketplace, giving you a second Robot?
- Can a Replicator copy a Monument card such as the Obelisk, or a contractor?
- How much does Megalith's build cost drop when you own several monument cards?
- What does a Black Market discard gain you, and is the tool icon included?
- Can you discard a building from your compound for Black Market?
- If Engineer reveals a building you already have, what happens to it?
- What are Training cards?
- Can a +1 or -1 modifier turn a 1 into a 6, or a 6 into a 1?
- Does a building's bonus trigger when that building is built?
Game End
Solo Rules
Fantastic Factories: ManufactionsExpansion
- Can Drone discard a Megalith, or another card costing 7 or more, to gain a die?
- When does Phantom's extra die start, and must you discard an unplaced die each work phase?
- Can you place more than five dice in one work phase?
- Can you use Replicator on Phantom in the marketplace to get Phantom's extra die?
- After Think Tank re-rolls its dice, can you activate a card you already used this round?
- Do you have to trash factories to benefit from a Demolitionist revealed by Recruiter?
- What build cost does a Demolitionist use when the demolished building has a variable cost, such as Empire or Promenade?
- Can SDC Global's Training-card discard be used when a Training card is discarded to build or pay for something else?
- When SDC Global lets you discard a Training card for its effect, do you still pay the card's activation cost?
- Can the Earth United faction place a die showing 4 on Generate?
- With Huemintek, must you discard the extra die at the end of the work phase, or can you keep it for 2 energy?
- If you have no energy yet, when must Huemintek's 2 energy be paid?
- With Huemintek, can you place all five dice before paying the 2 energy?
- Can you spend more than one vitamin on the same die to change it by more than one?
- Does Medical School's vitamin ability apply to all vitamins or only ones it produced?
- How many times can the Nexus card be used in one round?
- Do you shuffle the Manufactions blueprints and contractors into the base game's decks?
- Can I spend the resources stored with Vault, and how does Vault score?
- Can you use the Enigma Engine's exchanges more than once in a turn?
- What does the Refresh action on the solo playmat cost?