Friday FAQ
149 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Game Components
Preparations
- What is the life reserve, and do the life points you pay go back into it?
- How many aging cards are there, and why does the aging stack start with only 10?
- How do you tell the normal aging cards from the difficult ones?
- How do you set up the aging cards for Levels 2 and 3?
- At the highest level, do the life tokens set aside at setup ever come back into play?
- At Levels 3 and 4, are the normal and difficult aging cards kept apart?
- When do I find out which two pirates I will fight?
Playing the Game
- Where do drawn cards go, left or right of the hazard, and what is the difference?
- Do Stop and Below the Stack work differently on the left and right sides?
- Why keep free draws and paid cards on separate sides of the hazard?
- If a Stop card has ended your free draws, can you resume them after you destroy, exchange or bury it?
- After a Stop card ends your free draws, can you still use the abilities of the cards you drew, including the last one?
- Must you finish the free left-side draws before you pay for right-side cards?
- Must you draw at least one fighting card against a hazard, even one with value 0?
- Do you have to draw all the free fighting cards a hazard allows, or can you stop earlier?
- Can you keep drawing after your points already beat the hazard?
- Can you deliberately lose a hazard fight after your total already reaches the hazard value?
- How do you deliberately lose a hazard fight, and what does it cost?
- How much life do you pay when you lose a hazard fight, especially if your total is negative?
- After losing a hazard fight, how many cards can you destroy with the life you paid, and must you destroy any?
- After a lost fight, can you pay extra life to destroy more cards or an aging card?
- Can the life you paid to draw extra cards be used to destroy cards after the fight?
- Which cards can you destroy with the life you lost in a fight?
- Can you pay life to destroy cards after you have won a fight?
- Can you pay life for extra cards one at a time, and decide after each card whether to pay for another?
- Does a fighting card still count its value after you turn it sideways to use its ability?
- Can you use a card's ability before you have drawn all the free cards, and in what order?
- Which special abilities are mandatory?
- When you remove a card with Exchange or Below the Stack, must you draw a replacement?
- Can you fight and beat every hazard card in a step?
- What happens when exactly one hazard card is left at the end of a step?
- How do you move from the green step to the yellow and red steps, and is the hazard discard shuffled?
- Where do the fighting cards and the hazard card go after a fight, whether you win or lose?
- Must you take a hazard you beat into your discard, even if its value is zero?
- When do the -1 Life and -2 Life aging cards cost life, and can that life destroy cards?
- If you destroy a card whose life ability you already used, does the life you gained go away?
- Do you gain life when you beat a hazard by more than its value?
No More Fighting Cards in the Robinson Stack
- When do you reshuffle the Robinson discard pile into a new draw pile?
- When the Robinson stack runs out mid-fight, do you discard the card first or reshuffle first?
- If the Robinson stack has fewer cards than you need, can you put the discard under the stack or pick cards from it?
- When is an aging card added to the Robinson deck, and does an aging card matter outside a fight?
- If your Robinson stack must be reshuffled but no aging cards are left, do you lose?
- During a pirate fight, do you still add an aging card and reshuffle the discard when the stack runs out?
- In a pirate fight, do you lose as soon as the Robinson deck runs out, or only after every card is spent?
- If the Robinson stack runs out mid-fight, are the cards already on the table reshuffled?
The Final Showdown Against the Pirates
- Do you reshuffle all your Robinson cards before the fight against the first pirate?
- Do the cards you used against the first pirate come back for the second pirate?
- How many hazard points does the pirate that adds 2 per aging card count?
- What is the starting hazard value of the pirate marked with an asterisk and +2 per aging card?
- Does the aging card shuffled in at setup count toward the pirate that adds 2 per aging card?
- Does the pirate's strength rise if you add an aging card in the middle of its fight?
- Does the half-of-cards pirate halve your number of cards, or half of your fighting points?
- With the half-of-cards pirate, are cards removed from play, and does the limit change how you draw?
- For the half-of-cards pirate, which aging cards must be in the counted half?
- Do zero-value fighting cards count toward the half for the half-of-cards pirate?
- Can you still use the abilities of cards outside the counted half against the half-of-cards pirate?
- Does using a card's action, such as +1 life or +1 card, take that card out of the counted half?
- Can you use the special abilities printed on your Robinson cards while fighting a pirate?
- Does the step -1 ability help against a pirate or against a green-step hazard?
- How do you resolve the pirate that makes you fight all the remaining hazard cards?
- For the pirate that fights the remaining hazards, which hazards count, and which values are used?
- How does the pirate that adds +1 for each drawn fighting card count it?
- Does Double also double the pirate's +1 per card bonus?
- Do destroyed cards still give the +1 from the pirate that adds 1 per card?
- Do cards exchanged away or put below the stack still count for the +1 per card bonus?
- Do aging cards that cost life at the end of a fight still apply in the final pirate fight?
- Can you deliberately lose to a pirate and pay life to end the fight?
- When do you fight the pirates?
- Does a Stop aging card end your free draws when you fight a pirate?
Game End
- What happens when I must reshuffle the Robinson stack but have no aging card left to add?
- What happens when you must pay a life point but have none left?
- If you have one life left and draw a -1 life aging card, must you pay that last life?
- If an aging card's life loss would take you below zero at the end of the second pirate fight, do you still win?
- If you run out of cards against a pirate and cannot beat it, do you lose even with life left?
Special Abilities of the Fighting Cards
- When can I use a fighting card's special ability during a fight?
- Are the special abilities of fighting cards mandatory or optional?
- Must you apply an aging card's effect, or can you avoid it?
- Can I use another card's ability in the middle of a 2x Exchange or a draw of two cards?
- Does 2x Exchange force me to exchange two cards, and can I stop after one?
- Which cards can a 1x Exchange target, and where does the replacement come from?
- Can I exchange, destroy or bury a card after I have used its ability?
- Do Double, Phase -1 and Step -1 still apply if their card is exchanged, buried or destroyed before the fight ends?
- Does a fighting card still count its fighting value after I use its special ability?
- Can an ability target the card it is printed on?
- What happens to a card hit by a Destroy ability?
- If I destroy a free card on the left, do I draw a replacement?
- Can a destroyed card be exchanged, buried or removed again?
- Which cards can a Destroy ability target?
- When do I play a Destroy ability: before or after I count my fighting points?
- Can Destroy or Exchange remove an aging card, and what does it cost?
- If I destroy or exchange an aging card, do its life loss and other effects still apply?
- Do I still pay an aging card's life cost if I win or lose the fight, and can I avoid it?
- When do aging card abilities take effect: when drawn, or at the end of the fight?
- Does a Stop aging card on the right side of a hazard, or a paid or +2 draw, stop my other draws?
- If I destroy, exchange or bury a Stop card, can I keep drawing the remaining free cards?
- Does a Stop aging card on the left stop me from using other abilities, exchanges or below-the-stack moves?
- If two 'highest card = 0' aging cards are out, do they zero the same card or the two highest?
- Which card does a 'highest card = 0' aging card zero?
- If a Double targets the card that a 'highest card = 0' aging card zeroes, does it still count?
- If I exchange away my highest card while a 'highest card = 0' aging card is out, does the zero stay with that card?
- Does a Double card's effect apply only when the fight ends?
- Can I double the same fighting card more than once, or double it again?
- Can a Double card double itself, or can two Double effects stack on one card?
- How much does a Double card add to my total?
- If I double an aging card with a -2 fighting value, does it become -4?
- When can a Copy card copy an ability, and must the copied action happen right away?
- Can a Copy card copy a Double or Phase -1 card, and when does that copy take effect?
- Can a Copy card copy a Phase -1 card to lower the hazard two steps?
- Can several Copy cards copy the same ability, and how do I mark a used Copy card?
- Can I exchange the original Exchange card after copying its ability?
- What does 1x Below the Stack do, and do I draw a replacement for a card taken from the left?
- Can I use 1x Below the Stack when the Robinson stack is empty?
- Can I still use Below the Stack after I have declared the fight over?
- Must I discard one card when I sort 3 cards?
- Can I use Sort 3 Cards when fewer than three cards are left in the Robinson stack?
- Does Sort 3 give me a free draw, or do I pay life to draw afterwards?
- Can I use Sort 3 after I have already won the fight but before resolving it?
- Must I draw the full number of cards my +1 or +2 abilities allow?
- Does a Step -1 or Phase -1 card lower a pirate's strength?
- Does Step -1 move the hazard step back for the rest of the game?
- How does the pirate's +1 per drawn fighting card work with Double, and does it count destroyed cards?
- For the pirate that adds +2 hazard points per aging card, does the count include aging cards already removed and the starting aging card?
- Against the pirate where each additional card costs 2 life, do draws from abilities like Below the Stack also cost 2 life?
- Against the pirate that counts only half of your fighting cards, can I use the Double of a card that is not in the counted half?
- Can life lost to an aging card pay for destroying cards after a lost fight, and what does it cost?
- If I lose the fight (or the game) after using a Destroy card, is the face-down card still removed?
- Can I loop a 2x Exchange with a +2 life card to regain life without limit?
- Do Weapon cards have a special ability?
- Can a Copy card copy a Double ability and double a different card?
- Can a Copy of a Double card double the original Double card?
If You Easily Beat All the Hazards... (Difficulty Levels)
- On Level 2 and higher, is the extra starting aging card drawn from all aging cards or only the normal ones?
- How do you set up the highest official difficulty level, Level 4?
- On Level 4 difficulty, what is the most life you can have in total?
- Is there an official Level 5 difficulty?
- What changes in setup at each difficulty level?
- On Level 3, where is the Very Stupid aging card placed in the aging stack?
Scoring
- Do aging cards you destroyed count against your score at game end?
- Do aging cards still in the aging stack count against your score at game end?
- Which cards count toward your fighting-card total at scoring?
- Does each aging card in your deck count -5 at scoring, or only once?
- Do undefeated hazard cards still count -3 each when you reach the pirates?
- At final scoring, do unbeaten hazards in the hazard stack count, or only those in the discard pile?
- What is the fewest undefeated hazard cards you can finish with after the red phase?
- Do unbeaten hazards count -3 each when you lose the game?
- If you lose the game during a pirate fight, do you still score your remaining life points?
- Do you still calculate victory points if you lose the game?