Lost Ruins of Arnak
335 questions players ask about Lost Ruins of Arnak, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-27.
335 questions players ask about Lost Ruins of Arnak, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-27.
The rulebook's starting-deck section lists the two Fear cards explicitly.
Your starting deck is 6 cards, not 4: the 2 Funding and 2 Exploration cards in your color plus 2 Fear cards shuffled in. Draw 5 of those for your first hand; the sixth stays on top of your deck.
No — starting resources (2 coins for player 1, 1 coin and 1 compass for player 2, and so on) are handed out once, during setup. Later rounds only refill your hand to 5 cards; you get nothing else for free.
Several experienced players explain it the same way; the rulebook only mentions that blocking tiles make spaces unavailable.
They only matter during setup. In a 2- or 3-player game, shuffle the blocking tiles and reveal as many as you need; each one covers the two-boot camp space whose resource matches its icon. During play the icons do nothing, and an effect that activates a camp site (like the Dog) gives you that site's effect once whether or not a blocking tile sits there.
The rulebook's Reserve Tiles section covers both uses; note it does allow exiling a fear tile, contrary to some forum replies.
No — resource tokens are unlimited. If a pile runs low, put tokens on a ×3 reserve tile so each counts as three. The Fear deck, however, can run out: if you must take Fear and the deck is empty, take a reserve tile on its fear side instead, worth −2 points. The fear tile sits in your play area, and an effect that lets you exile a card from your play area may exile it instead.
The designer addressed this in 2021 and again in 2025; some players remember an earlier statement favouring the originals.
Either is allowed. The replacements from Expedition Leaders (the Miner assistant and the Stone Key) are required only with that expansion. For the base game alone it's your choice. The designer said in 2021 that the new Miner is better balanced but the new Stone Key is weaker without blue idol slots, and in 2025 recommended always using the updated Miner.
Many experienced players agree; the rulebook treats the deck as a face-down pile you only shuffle at set times.
No — your deck stays face down and its contents and order are hidden, even from you. Only card effects that tell you to look at or reveal cards let you see them. You may freely look at your play area, which is a face-up discard pile.
Several players agree; the rulebook doesn't address it.
Yes — counting your deck is fine; you just may not look at the cards' faces or order.
Players agree, pointing to how the rulebook describes the hand and play area.
Yes — your hand is private. Cards become public when you put them face up into your play area by playing or spending them.
Yes — nothing in the rules makes exiled cards hidden, so anyone may look through the item and artifact exile piles. This matters for effects that take a card from exile, like Ornate Hammer.
Several players agree; the rulebook defines a hierarchy only for travel icons.
No — resources have no hierarchy, unlike travel icons. A cost must be paid with exactly the resource shown, unless an effect converts it, such as an upgrade (tablet to arrowhead, arrowhead to jewel). Upgrades only go one way, and there is no general way to downgrade.
Per turn. Each turn you take exactly one main action plus any number of free actions, then play moves to the next player. Turns keep going around the table until everyone has passed, so a round usually has many turns. Only two of them can place archaeologists, but buying, playing a card and researching don't need one, and you can repeat the same action on later turns.
The designer ruled on this in 2020, and the updated rulebook says the same.
No — every turn needs a main action. If you can't or don't want to take any other main action, you must pass, which counts as your main action. You can still take free actions on that turn before you pass, but after passing you get no more turns that round. Later printings of the rulebook spell this out.
“On your action you must perform one main action (you may also perform unlimited number of free actions). If you cannot perform any other main action from the list, you must choose the last one which is to pass.”
— Elwen, designer
The rulebook says free actions may come before, after or during the main action, and players point to that passage.
Yes — free actions can be taken before, after and even during your main action, as many as you like, and you never have to announce your main action in advance. That includes the turn you pass. A few translations (such as one line in the French rulebook) say free actions come after the main action; that is a translation error.
Several players agree on this reading; the rulebook allows free actions during a main action but doesn't define how finely an effect can be split.
Yes, between steps — you may slot free actions in during your main action, for example between drawing and exiling with Rod of Division, or between taking the idol and resolving the new site when you discover. What you can't do is split a single effect icon: you can't refresh one assistant with Sacred Drum, use it, and then refresh it again with the same Drum, and when a new site has two idols, you can't slot the face-down one before resolving the face-up idol's reward.
No — finish the free action first. What you can do is keep travel icons from a free action and spend them on your main action later the same turn.
The designer confirmed this in 2026, and it matches the rulebook's assistant example.
Yes — travel icons you generate in a turn, from any source, stay available until that turn ends. You can spend them on a free action that needs travel (such as the boot-to-arrowhead assistant) and on your main action, in either order. Whatever is left when your turn ends is lost; icons never carry over to a later turn. This is a base-game rule, not just an expansion one.
The designer confirmed this reading in 2021.
No — a travel icon only pays the travel cost of an action you are already allowed to take; it never grants the action. Digging and discovering are main actions, so if you have already taken your main action this turn, the icon can only pay for a free action and is otherwise wasted. If you spend it on a main action such as digging, that is your one main action for the turn.
The designer confirmed the community's conclusion in 2026, consistent with the rulebook's Action Effects section.
Yes — you start only one main action yourself, but actions that effects trigger inside it are allowed. For example, a site whose reward lets you use an assistant can trigger the gold discount assistant to buy an artifact, and you then resolve that artifact's effect too (say, Pathfinder's Hat relocating an archaeologist). The rulebook's Action Effects section treats these as part of the effect, not as extra main actions.
The rulebook says a card is used for its travel value or its effect, never both, and players agree.
No — the lightning bolt applies only to a card's effect. Spending a card for its travel value ignores its effect and is just payment for the action you're taking. Each Dig or Discover action places one archaeologist, so normally you place at most one per turn.
The rulebook says you can't dig once both archaeologists are out, and its keyword list defines relocate.
Not normally — an archaeologist stays at its site until the end of the round, so you get two placements per round. Only effects that say so can move one (relocate, e.g. Pathfinder's Staff or Sandals) or bring one back to your board to use again.
The designer confirmed in 2020 that hiring a pilot is always available, and the rulebook sets no limit.
Yes to both — you can always pay 2 coins for a plane, even with no cards in hand, and there is no limit per turn. Each plane covers one travel icon, so a two-icon space costs 4 coins if you pay entirely with pilots.
The rulebook's Two Icons section says exactly this.
Yes — a two-icon cost can be covered by travel values from two sources, such as two cards, a card plus a boon, or a card plus a hired pilot.
The rulebook states that the compass cost applies only to discovering.
No — the compass cost printed on the board is paid only when a site is first discovered. After that, anyone can dig there while a space is free by paying just the travel cost shown on the space.
The rulebook's dig steps and worked example cover both points.
No — digging sends an archaeologist from your player board, so one already on a site can't trigger that site again. You can send your other archaeologist to the same site's second space, if it's free, by paying that space's cost (usually two boots on a camp site).
The rulebook says a discovered site becomes another place to dig, and players agree.
Yes — every time you send an archaeologist to an unoccupied space and pay its travel cost, you resolve the site's full effect again. Discovered sites are permanent places to dig.
The rulebook ties guardians to discovering a site only.
No — a guardian is drawn only when a level I or II site is first discovered. Camp sites never get guardians, and digging at a discovered site, whether or not its guardian was overcome, never adds another one, in solo or multiplayer.
The rulebook's Travel Hierarchy says a higher travel value can always pay a cost.
Yes — the travel hierarchy applies to every travel cost, wherever it is printed. Any icon pays a boot, a plane (including a hired pilot for 2 coins) pays anything, and cars and boats can't pay for each other. A travel discount works the same way and can cover one icon of a two-icon cost.
This follows directly from the rulebook's Travel Hierarchy and Two Icons rules.
Neither — each icon covers exactly one icon of equal or lower rank. A two-boot cost needs two icons (any kind), and boots can never pay a car or boat.
The rulebook's keyword entry for discount explains this.
It covers one icon of the matching type or lower: a car discount makes a two-car space cost one car, or covers a boot. It does nothing on a two-boat space, because a car can't pay a boat. A plane discount covers one icon of any kind. Discounts never go below zero and don't carry over to another action.
The rulebook's Paying Travel Costs section describes this.
No — paying travel is part of the Dig or Discover action. As you place your archaeologist, you spend cards from your hand for their travel icons (or hire pilots); those cards' effects are ignored.
The rulebook's Effects list says the Fear card must be taken and the pay-for costs are optional.
Gains are optional, but a Fear card in a reward must be taken: it goes face up into your play area, so you never get to use its boot that round. Costs inside a reward, such as paying a compass for a jewel, are optional too; if you don't pay, you just don't get that benefit.
The rulebook's Effects list covers the empty-hand case directly; the voluntary-decline case is the common reading, though one player argued it is mandatory.
Yes — you still pay the space's travel cost, but putting a card down for the jewel is the price of the benefit. If you don't pay it, you just don't get the jewel. The rulebook says that with an empty hand you can't pay and get nothing, so the dig itself is legal. Most players also let you decline with cards in hand, though some digital versions force the discard.
The rulebook's Effects list says any card from your hand pays this cost, and players agree.
Yes — any card in your hand can pay such a cost, and Fear cards are usually the best choice since they have no effect. Note that a site's travel cost must be paid separately, so you can't use the same card for both.
Many experienced players agree; the rulebook doesn't address it directly.
Yes — resolve the site's rewards and you may apply its upgrade to what you just got, so 2 tablets plus an upgrade can become 1 tablet and 1 arrowhead. When you discover a site, though, the idol is resolved before the site, so an idol's upgrade can't use the new site's tokens.
The rulebook's keyword list defines activating a site.
Activating gives you the site's effect without sending an archaeologist or paying travel, and other players' archaeologists don't block it (unless the card says so). The site must be discovered. Digging is the full action: you take an archaeologist from your board, pay the space's travel cost, and need an unoccupied space. A card that lets you dig with a discount still needs a free archaeologist; one that says activate doesn't.
The rulebook's discovery steps require both payments, and players agree.
Yes — each undiscovered site costs the compasses printed for its level plus the travel cost of its space, every time, no matter how many sites of that level are already out. Cards that give travel icons only cover the travel part; you still pay the compasses unless a card explicitly discounts or waives them.
The rulebook lists the discovery steps in this order.
No — discovery has a fixed order: pay, take the idol and resolve its effect, then reveal and resolve the site tile, then draw the guardian. Because the idol comes first, an idol's upgrade can't be applied to tablets or arrowheads the new site gives you.
The rulebook's discovery steps say this explicitly.
No — you take both idols but resolve only the face-up one's effect. Both count as idols afterwards: each scores 3 points and either can go into an idol slot or pay an idol cost.
Experienced players agree, relaying a CGE staff answer from the publisher's Discord; BGA plays it the same way, though one player argued otherwise.
No — the idols are taken together and the face-up effect triggers at once, as one step that free actions can't interrupt. Only after the idol is flipped face down onto your board can it go in a slot. You can slot an idol you already had before discovering. A CGE staff answer said this is the intended reading but that groups may agree to play it the looser way.
The rulebook says to immediately resolve the idol's effect and immediately gain a research bonus.
No — both are used the moment you gain them, or lost. Afterwards the idol is turned face down, and the bonus tile is removed from the game. What you can delay is putting an idol into a slot on your board for one of the slot effects.
The rulebook says idols are found when you discover new sites.
Only by discovering — the idols sit on undiscovered sites and go to whoever discovers that site. Overcoming a guardian gives you the guardian tile (5 points and a boon), and later digs at the site just give its effect.
The designer ruled this in 2020, and players apply it to site tiles as well as cards.
Yes — effects are always resolved in printed order (left to right, top to bottom). So on a site with an upgrade and a card draw, you decide the upgrade before seeing the card, and it all happens before the guardian is drawn. Tokens gained earlier in the sequence can be used by a later part, and optional parts can be skipped.
“You always evaluate effects in the order they are printed”
— Elwen, designer
It rarely makes a difference, since the tile is random either way. It can matter with effects that look at, take or activate the top tile of a site stack (some artifacts and expansion content), because pre-dealt tiles shrink those stacks.
The designer ruled on this in 2021, and the publisher confirmed in 2022 that the icon was removed from newer prints.
Nothing — ignore it. You overcome a guardian by paying the cost printed on its tile. The icon was only meant as a reminder of what you get for paying, and it was removed from later print runs. The checkmark-guardian icon described in the rulebook is about card effects that let you overcome a guardian without paying its cost.
“When you face the guardian, you may pay the printed cost to overcome it. The icon was meant as a reminder of what you get for the cost”
— Elwen, designer
The designer answered this directly in 2020, and it matches the rulebook's Travel Hierarchy.
Yes — the travel hierarchy and hiring a pilot apply to every travel cost, guardians included. Boots can be paid with cars, boats or planes, and each plane can be hired for 2 coins, as many times as you like: a guardian needing 3 boots can be paid with 6 coins. Spending cards or boons for these icons is just paying the cost; overcoming the guardian is your one main action.
“The rule of travel hierarchy applies in all situations and the rule of hiring a pilot is always an option. If you were to meet a giant centipede that would require 3 boots, 6 coins would do the trick.”
— Elwen, designer
The rulebook's section on boons says this, and players agree.
Once per game, on any of your turns after you overcome the guardian. You don't have to use it right away. When you use it, flip the guardian face down; it still scores 5 points. A travel-icon boon works like a travel icon from a card: spend it toward a cost that turn, or it is lost. Lightning boons are free actions.
The rulebook's only requirement is having an archaeologist on the guardian's site.
Any player with an archaeologist on that guardian's site can overcome it, as a main action. Guardians and sites don't belong to anyone, so a guardian left behind by someone else can be overcome by the next player who digs there, on a later turn.
The rulebook lists both as main actions and allows one per turn; players agree.
No — placing an archaeologist and overcoming a guardian are two separate main actions, so overcome it on a later turn while your archaeologist is still there. The only exception is an effect that lets you overcome a guardian as part of its own resolution (the guardian-with-checkmark icon).
The rulebook gives guardian Fear only when archaeologists are taken back at round end.
No — guardian Fear is checked only at the end of the round, for each archaeologist you take back from a site that still has a guardian. Moving it off with a relocate effect (such as Pathfinder's Sandals) or returning it early (such as with Guardian's Ocarina) avoids the Fear card.
The rulebook says guardians do not prevent archaeologists from digging at their sites.
Yes — guardians never stop you from digging at or activating a site, and you get the site's full reward. The catch is the Fear card: if the guardian is still there when you take your archaeologist back at round end, you gain one, even if someone else awakened it.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No — a discard is the cost of one specific effect. A boon that asks you to put down a card for an arrowhead needs its own, separate card. Arnak has no triggers of the form "whenever you discard".
The rulebook says you choose one effect, and players agree the trade happens once.
Once — placing an idol in a slot is a free action that gives one of the five effects a single time: one coin-to-jewel trade, one draw, and so on. Each slot can be used only once per game, and a filled slot no longer scores its printed points at the end, though the idol itself still scores 3.
Players agree; the rulebook sets no idol limit.
No — you can keep any number of idols on your supply crates, and each scores 3 points. Your board has only four idol slots, though, so normally you can use at most four slot effects per game (some cards let you free up a slot).
The designer ruled this in 2021, matching the rulebook's Refilling the Card Row section.
At the end of your turn. If effects let you buy several cards in one turn (for example through Ancient Wine or Coconut Flask chains), later purchases choose from a row that still has gaps; the row slides and refills once your turn ends. It then refills with a card of the same type every turn, so it only shrinks when that deck runs out. The buy steps that list refilling as step 4 were flagged by the designer for clearer wording.
“BGA implementation corresponds with our design intent. You refill the card row when you end your turn.”
— Elwen, designer
The rulebook's buy steps cover one card per action, and players agree.
No — each Buy a Card action buys one card, and it is your main action for the turn. You can buy again on later turns, and some effects (an artifact or assistant that buys a card) let a single turn include extra purchases.
The rulebook's item-buying steps say so.
Face down on the bottom of your deck, not into your hand, so you usually draw them next round. That holds whether you buy or gain the item, unless the effect itself says otherwise. Artifacts are different: they go to your play area and can be resolved at once.
The rulebook says you have the option to immediately resolve the effect when you buy it.
No — the free use is only at the moment you buy it. The artifact goes to your play area and you may resolve its effect right away, ignoring the tablet cost. If you skip it, the chance is gone. The card is shuffled under your deck at round end, and when you draw it later, playing its effect costs a tablet as usual. It is a one-time effect each time, not a lasting one.
The rulebook's artifact-buying steps move the card to your play area with only its effect, and players agree.
No — on purchase you may only resolve its effect. The card goes straight to your play area, so its travel icon can't be spent this round, and buying was already your main action, so you can't also dig or overcome a guardian that turn. In a later round you can play it from hand just for its travel value, with no tablet.
The rulebook says the tablet cost is ignored on purchase while the effect's other costs always apply.
Only the tablet cost in the card's corner. Any other cost that is part of the effect itself, such as paying coins, compasses or a card to gain something, must still be paid.
The rulebook's discount keyword says discounts stop at zero and don't carry over.
Yes, it can bring a price down to zero, though never below. It applies only to that one purchase and doesn't carry over to later ones.
The rulebook's Free Actions list names this assistant as the exception, and players agree.
No — the assistant that buys a card at a discount is the one assistant whose effect is a main action (it has no lightning bolt). Playing Fishing Rod for its effect is also a main action, so you can't combine them in one turn. Using the assistant exhausts it as usual. An effect that uses an assistant as part of its own resolution, like Ancient Wine, can still trigger it.
No — the beneficial parts of an effect are optional, so you can take only part of a card. For example, play Sea Turtle or Sturdy Boots for the card draw and skip the dig, even with no archaeologist available, or take only the coins from an artifact. The dig/discover icon means you may take that action. The parts you do take still resolve in printed order, and a pay-to-gain effect gives nothing unless you pay.
“some effects are optional and can be skipped, this is the case with Sturdy Boots, Sea Turtle, Ostrich, etc. where you can evaluate only part of the effect”
— Elwen, designer
The designer said exiling is optional in 2021, matching the rulebook's description of the exile icon.
No — an exile benefit means you may exile a card, so you can take the rest of the effect and keep your cards. That differs from a cost you must pay to get a benefit, such as putting a card down: if you want the benefit, you pay it.
The rulebook's exile icon is defined as exiling from your hand or play area.
No — exile effects take a card from your hand or play area only, never from your deck. If the Fear card you want gone is still in your deck, you have to wait until it shows up.
The rulebook's keyword entry ties the benefit to playing the card for its effect, and many players agree.
Exiling is part of playing the card: play it from your hand for its effect, put it in exile instead of your play area, and take the benefit. You don't need any other exile effect. If the card leaves some other way (an idol slot, an assistant, Little Monkey clearing it from the card row, or exiling it from your play area after spending it for travel), it is simply removed, with no benefit.
The rulebook lets exile effects take cards from your play area, and players agree.
Yes — a played card goes into your play area first, and exile effects can target your play area, so it can exile itself. You still get the rest of its effect (Torch's tablet, for instance), but you lose the card's points and future use.
The rulebook's Exile section says where exiled basic cards go.
Yes — any card in your hand or play area can be exiled, including your basic cards. Exiled Funding and Exploration cards go near the Fear deck and stay out of the game. Exiled Fear cards go back to the Fear deck.
The rulebook says these effects gain you tokens, and players agree they persist.
Yes — resource tokens (coins, compasses, tablets, arrowheads, jewels) go to your board and stay until you spend them, across rounds. Only travel icons are temporary: they must be used in the turn you generate them.
The rulebook calls the play area a spread-out discard pile that isn't recycled until round end.
No — a card's effect or travel value is used once, when you play it from hand (or, for an artifact, when you buy it). It then stays in your play area until the round ends and is shuffled under your deck. Hands aren't refilled each turn either; you draw back to 5 only at the start of a round.
No — a cost-to-benefit exchange resolves once each time you get the effect, even if you could afford it several times. The one thing you can repeat freely is hiring a pilot (2 coins per plane). Only cards that explicitly last for the rest of the round apply more than once.
The rulebook ties the tablet cost to playing the artifact's effect.
No — the tablet is paid only when you play an artifact for its effect. Spending it for travel costs nothing, but then you get no effect; a card is used for one or the other, never both.
It depends on the layout. If a line marked OR separates the parts, you choose either the free action or the other effect, which is then a main action. Text joined with "and", or an effect that lasts the rest of the round, is part of the same free action. All artifact effects are main actions.
The rulebook's Effects list shows plain icons as gains and arrows as pay-to-gain.
A gain. Icons shown on their own are things you receive; only what sits left of an arrow, or text telling you to pay, is a cost. The Dog gives you a compass and activates a site, and Coconut Flask gives you 2 coins (after the tablet you pay to play it from hand).
The rulebook's FAQ answers this directly.
Nothing — the draw is lost. You never reshuffle your play area mid-round. Buying an item first puts it on your deck space, so a draw afterwards would give you that item.
Several players agree; it follows from free actions being allowed during the main action.
Yes — both halves are optional, and free actions can be slipped in between them. You can draw, play the new card's lightning effect, and then exile that card (or any other) from your hand or play area.
The rulebook's Effects list defines the two trades, and players agree the effect is optional and single.
One upgrade is one trade: a tablet into an arrowhead, or an arrowhead into a jewel. You can't go tablet to jewel in one step, upgrade a jewel, or trade anything downward. It is optional: with nothing to upgrade, or if you'd rather not, skip it and still take the rest of the effect (Trader's Scale's coins, for instance). A skipped upgrade is lost, not saved.
The rulebook's Effects list says to pay the cost and choose one of the two tokens.
Choose one of the two, not both. For the coin effect you pay once and pick an arrowhead or a jewel. Some translations drop the slash, but the English rulebook is clear.
It's a cost for the benefit after it: put a card from your hand face up into your play area (ignoring its travel and effect), and only then gain the reward. With an empty hand you can't pay, so you get nothing from that part. The card you're playing (Rope, say) is no longer in your hand, so it can't pay its own cost. Any card in hand, including Fear, works.
The rulebook's Action Effects entry says the action requires an archaeologist on your board.
Yes — that icon lets you take a Dig or Discover action, which needs an archaeologist still on your player board. With both already out you can still play the card for its other parts (Sturdy Boots' compass, for example), but the dig is lost. Placed archaeologists only move with relocate or return effects.
The rulebook's Research section describes a single one-row move per action.
Each research action moves one token up exactly one row, and it is your main action, so you can't advance twice in one turn even if you can pay for both. You can research again on later turns of the same round as long as you can pay. Extra steps only come from effects, such as an artifact gained mid-research that grants another advance.
The rulebook's Research section sets out both rules.
A token moves up one row into any space connected to its current one by a bridge; you are not locked to one side, though sometimes only one move is possible. The notebook may take a different branch from the magnifying glass. The only limit is that it can never be in a higher row than the magnifying glass, and "higher" means the row, not the position within it.
The rulebook says to pay the cost printed on the bridge, and players agree.
No — you pay exactly what is printed on the bridge. There is no overpaying with a "better" resource; use an upgrade effect beforehand if you need to convert something.
The rulebook's Research section says to immediately gain the bonus and remove the tile.
No saving — the first token to enter a space with a face-up bonus tile, magnifying glass or notebook, gains its bonus immediately, and the tile leaves the game. If you can't or don't want to use it (such as a trade with nothing to trade), it is simply lost. You may still make the move and always resolve the row's effect. A space holding several tiles lets a later token take one of the remaining tiles.
The rulebook explicitly allows the row effect first, and players agree free actions can come between.
Yes — the rulebook lets you resolve the row's effect first, and free actions may come between the two. For example: draw a card from the row effect, play its lightning effect or use an assistant, then take the upgrade bonus tile. "Immediately" only means you can't bank the bonus for a later turn.
The rulebook states this in its Lost Temple section.
No — only the magnifying glass can enter the Lost Temple row. The notebook tops out on the row below, though once your magnifying glass is in the temple you can keep researching with it to buy temple tiles.
The rulebook's Exploring the Lost Temple section describes this.
Yes to both — once your magnifying glass is in the Lost Temple, each later research action with it lets you pay for one temple tile from any stack you can afford, in any order, including the 11-point stack first. Repeat it on later turns for more tiles, even several of the same value, until that stack runs out.
The rulebook's note on Inscribed Blade covers temple tiles, and a player confirms the same for the final step.
Yes — both are research actions, so a research discount from a card applies. The rulebook confirms that Inscribed Blade's discount can be used on a temple tile.
Many players agree; the rulebook's assistant rules imply it without stating a limit.
No — in the base game there is no way to hold more than two assistants. The gold rows upgrade (and refresh) an assistant you already have; they don't add a new one. Swapping an assistant for one on the supply board needs an effect that says so, such as Decorated Horn.
The rulebook's Upgrading Assistants section says the assistant is refreshed.
Yes — upgrading flips one assistant to gold and refreshes it, so you can use it again that round even if you used its silver side. (The number printed next to that space on the Bird Temple side is victory points.) An assistant already on gold can't be upgraded, so after that only card, boon or idol effects refresh it mid-round.
The rulebook's Recruiting Assistants section covers this.
Only the top assistant of each stack on the supply board is available, whether you are recruiting or an effect refers to available assistants. The supply is never refilled: taking one simply reveals the next in that stack, and an empty stack stays empty.
The rulebook's Using Assistants section says assistants are exhausted when used.
Neither — every assistant, the discount one included, is used by turning it sideways (exhausting it), normally once per round. Assistants refresh at the end of the round, or earlier if an effect refreshes them. The discount applies to the one purchase you make when you exhaust it.
Several players agree; it follows from the rulebook's 'may' wording for these effects.
Yes — beneficial effects are optional, so you can take one part of an assistant's effect and forfeit the rest, such as taking just the compass from the gold exile-and-compass assistant. You're never forced to exile.
Two players agree; nothing in the rules refers to it.
No — it's decoration with no rules meaning.
No — only one. Playing a pass-to-gain card makes you pass, and once you have passed you can't take any more actions that round, not even free actions. Choose the one card whose reward you want. Free actions you want to use must come before it.
“if you play a card and its effect makes you pass, you cannot trigger the effect of a different card.”
— Elwen, designer
The designer confirmed in 2020 that you can buy Sundial and pass for its jewel, consistent with the rulebook's pass-to-gain keyword.
Yes to both. A pass-to-gain card is just your final main action of the round: earlier turns don't matter, and it works when you're the last player still in. Passing is part of the card's effect, so when you buy an artifact like Sundial you can resolve it by passing for the jewel, and your round ends there.
The rulebook's Passing section describes the last player taking several turns in a row.
Yes — once you're the only one who hasn't passed, you take turn after turn, one main action each, until you choose to pass. You can also pass whenever you like, even with actions still available, to save resources; but once you pass you're out for the rest of the round and can't un-pass.
The rulebook's FAQ answers this directly.
No — there is no discard pile to recycle. Played cards stay in your play area, and only at the end of the round are they shuffled and put under your deck. If your deck empties mid-round, you simply can't draw any more that round. Each card can therefore be played at most once per round.
The rulebook's Setup for Next Round section gives this choice.
For each one, choose: discard it to your play area or keep it for next round, then draw up to 5. Discarding a Fear card doesn't get rid of it; it is shuffled back under your deck with your other played cards. Only an exile effect removes it. A card with no use can't be played just to dump it, so pass and discard it at round end.
The rulebook's Setup for Next Round section starts with returning archaeologists and gaining Fear.
Fear comes at the end of the round, not when you pass: once everyone has passed, all players return both archaeologists and take a Fear card for each one coming back from a site that still has a guardian. You can't leave an archaeologist out to dodge it; only effects that move or return one during the round avoid it.
The rulebook's Setup for Next Round and Refilling the Card Row sections give this order.
Exile the artifact and item on either side of the moon staff, move the staff one space right, then slide the remaining cards on each side toward the staff and deal new cards into the gaps at the outer ends. Sliding toward the staff matters, because the cards next to it are the ones exiled next round.
The rulebook says the marker moves one place to the left.
To the left, which is clockwise, the same direction as turn order.
The designer confirmed in 2022 that fear tiles are the official rule and that proxying is a fine home variant.
Officially, take a fear tile (the back of a reserve tile) worth −2 points whenever you should gain a Fear card and the deck is empty. Running out is more likely with Expedition Leaders. Proxying extra Fear cards instead is an acceptable house rule that the designer says won't break the game.
The rulebook's Final Scoring section covers both parts.
Every idol you collected scores 3 points, whether it is in a slot or still on your supply crates. Each empty slot also scores its printed value; four empty slots add 10 points. Idols always go into the leftmost empty slot, so you can't skip past a low-value slot; only an effect like Stone Key, which moves an idol from a slot back to your supply crates, can leave a gap.
The rulebook's Final Scoring list covers all cards and doesn't include resources.
Every item and artifact you own scores its printed points wherever it is (deck, hand or play area), and every Fear card scores −1 (fear tiles −2). Leftover coins, compasses and other tokens score nothing.
The rulebook's Final Scoring section gives the tiebreakers.
The tied player who reached the Lost Temple first wins. If none of them reached it, the one with the higher research score wins: the points from their magnifying glass and notebook added together. Any remaining tie stands.
The rulebook's Snake Temple section describes the choose-one rule.
During setup, 2 or 3 face-up bonus tiles (by player count) are dealt to that row. Each time a research token, magnifying glass or notebook, moves there, its owner picks one of the remaining tiles, and only that tile is removed. A later token can still take one of those left.
The rulebook's Assistant Rescue section says so explicitly.
No — the idol must come from your supply crates, not from a slot, and it is removed from the game (so you also lose its 3 points).
The rulebook's Assistant Rescue section describes this.
You choose: look through the stack on the research track secretly, take any one, and put the rest back in the same order. The rescued assistant arrives exhausted, so you can't use it this round unless something refreshes it. The rescue counts as one of your assistants for later upgrades.
Two players agree, consistent with the rulebook's 'may exile' wording for the icon.
No — you always resolve the row's effect, but that effect only gives you the option to exile a card, so you can decline.
Two players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — Journal researches with your notebook for free, so you don't pay the idol. The notebook still can't move above your magnifying glass.
The rulebook's Coconut Flask note excludes the rescue space, and players apply the same to Decorated Horn.
No — both work only with assistants on the supply board. The stack on the research track isn't part of the supply, even though BGA highlights it. The rulebook says this outright for Coconut Flask.
The designer ruled on this in 2020, matching the solo rules' Research section.
No — when the rival reaches the Lost Temple, its magnifying glass takes the best remaining points space and you remove the top tile of the face-down bonus stack from the game; the rival doesn't score that tile. It never gets the 11-point temple tile. Each later research action gives it a 6-point tile instead (decision arrow picks the stack), until those run out.
“Rival never gets the 11 points Temple tile, if he is already in the Lost temple and continue in research, he gets the silver 6 point tile.”
— Elwen, designer
The solo rules' Gameplay section says the rival plays all 10 tiles.
The rival takes exactly 10 turns per round, one per action tile, and doesn't pass before that even if you have. Once its stack is used up it has effectively passed, and you keep taking turns until you pass. The stack is reshuffled only at the end of the round.
The solo rules' rival Dig at a Site section sets these priorities.
Any discovered site that includes that resource qualifies, whatever else it offers (even the discard-a-card-for-jewel camp). Among them the rival prefers a higher row over a lower one, then left or right per the decision arrow. Early in the game that means only the camp sites; discovered level I and II sites take priority once they exist.
The solo rules say the rival does not gain or spend resource tokens.
No — the rival never gains or spends resource tokens. It just places one of its six archaeologists to block the space, with no travel or compass cost and no site reward. Discovering gives it only the idol(s), which it keeps for points with no idol effect. A dig tile never discovers a new site; that is a separate rival action.
The solo rules' Overcome a Guardian section covers both cases.
Only a guardian on a site where the rival has an archaeologist (higher row first, then the decision arrow); it moves to the rival's board. If none qualify, the rival researches instead, without taking an assistant from the supply board. It can't take a guardian just because your archaeologist is there.
The solo rules say the rival does nothing when an action is impossible.
Nothing that turn. It doesn't switch to a level I site or any other substitute.
The solo rules' Research section says to remove an assistant each time.
Yes — the rival has no assistant slots. Each time its research calls for one, remove the top assistant of the highest supply stack from the game, with no limit. On the Snake Temple side it also takes the top assistant from the rescue space when it reaches that row.
The rulebook's Rival Action Stack section describes this.
Use all 5 archaeologist tiles plus 5 red-or-green tiles, exactly one from each red/green pair so all five actions appear. The number of red tiles is your difficulty, from 0 (all green) to 5 (all red).
The rulebook's Rival Setup section says so.
The gray-tent side represents the solo rival's expedition. The rival gets all 6 archaeologist figures not in your color, and one magnifying glass on the research track.
The solo rules' Discover and Scoring sections cover this.
A face-up idol type the rival doesn't have yet goes face up on its matching space and scores 3. Duplicates and any face-down idol (such as the second idol from a level II site) go on the −1 space and score 2 points each.
The solo Scoring section says you score your points as usual.
Yes — you play and score exactly as usual, including both your magnifying glass and notebook. Only the rival uses a single research token. When it buys the lowest or highest item or artifact, compare the points in the cards' bottom-right corner.
The solo rules include a specific Snake Temple instruction.
Yes — either side works solo. The solo rules even include a Snake Temple note: the rival also takes the top assistant from the rescue space when it reaches that row.
No — the box contains only red and green rival action tiles. Purple actions and Rival Objectives come from CGE's separate solo mini-expansions (print-and-play, also in the solo web app, and later in Twisted Paths).
The designer confirmed in 2020 that relocating costs no travel, matching the rulebook's keyword definition.
Relocating moves one of your own archaeologists that's already on a site to an unoccupied space at a different, already discovered site, without paying travel or compasses, so it can never discover a site. The card may restrict the destination (Pathfinder's Sandals, for example, only to camp sites), but unless the card says otherwise, the origin can be any site. No effect in the game moves another player's archaeologist.
The rulebook's keyword list defines unoccupied site this way.
No — a site is unoccupied only if no archaeologist is on it. One figure on a camp site makes the whole site occupied, even though someone can still dig at its free space. Guardians don't count as occupying a site. These cards activate the site without sending a worker, so they work even when both your archaeologists are out.
Several players agree; the rulebook defines the tent sites but doesn't discuss the Dog.
Only camp sites — the tent icon means the five printed camp sites on the board's first row, never discovered level I or II sites. If no camp site is unoccupied you can still play the Dog and just take its compass.
Several players agree; digital versions that charged travel were treated as a bug.
You need an archaeologist on your board, but no travel: send it to any camp site for free and you may activate that site twice instead of once. If you play Passage Shell from your hand you still pay its tablet cost; if you resolve it when buying it, you don't.
The rulebook's Guardian's Crown note covers the destination limits, and players agree on which site is activated.
Move a guardian off a site where you have an archaeologist onto an unoccupied, discovered camp or level I site that has no guardian, then activate the site the guardian moved to. Moving it to a camp site is intended: the guardian stays there under the usual rules (Fear at round end for anyone there, and it can be overcome). There is no idol, since the site is already discovered. With no guardian to move, nothing is activated.
The designer ruled on this in 2023.
Yes — after Ocarina, every travel icon you generate that round counts as a plane, including discounts: Sturdy Boots gives a two-plane discount, and Sea Turtle and Ostrich give plane discounts too. Some translations say it affects only card icons; that is a mistake. Ocarina returns only one archaeologist, and played cards stay in your play area, so there is no infinite loop.
“the Guardian's Ocarina truly replaces all your travel icons including the discounts you generate. Therefore Sea Turtle, Ostrich and Sturdy Boots all give you discount of planes”
— Elwen, designer
The designer ruled on this in 2021, consistent with the rulebook's Bear Trap note.
Yes — Bear Trap overcomes the guardian without paying the cost on its tile. It works on a site where you have an archaeologist or on a site with no archaeologists at all; the only restriction is that no other player is there. You keep the guardian (5 points and its boon) as usual.
“It will allow you to Overcome a Guardian on a site you occupy but also on a site that is empty. In both cases you overcome the guardian without paying the cost.”
— Elwen, designer
Several players agree; no official ruling.
Yes to both — War Mask stays in your play area until the round ends, so its protection is still active when archaeologists return, and it covers every guardian you'd take Fear from that round.
Several players agree; the rulebook's discount keyword says discounts don't carry over to other actions.
The discount only reduces the travel cost of the dig or discover the card itself grants; it can't pay a boot-cost assistant or a guardian. You can still use the card's dig at any site: pay the travel the discount doesn't cover with other icons, and the unused discount is wasted.
No — a plane covers any travel icon, so its discount reduces the travel cost of a dig too. Only the compass part of a discount is limited to discovering.
Several players agree from the card text; no official ruling.
It activates a site occupied by you, so one of your archaeologists must be there. If it's a level II site you also pay the 2 compasses the card shows. Activating never reveals a new guardian; guardians appear only on discovery.
The designer confirmed in 2020 that the revealed card is shown to everyone, and the rulebook's appendix covers the rest.
Reveal the top card of the relevant deck openly; it joins the row's cards as an option to buy at the discount. If nobody buys it, turn it face down again. You can take free actions partway through, such as playing a coin card to cover the rest of the price, and you may also buy nothing. An item bought this way still goes to the bottom of your deck.
The rulebook's Coconut Flask note covers this, and players agree.
Only an available assistant: the top one of each supply-board stack; you can't search the stacks, and the Snake Temple rescue stack doesn't count. Using the card is your main action even if the assistant's effect is a free action, and the assistant isn't exhausted. A travel value it produces is wasted unless you spend it on a free action that turn.
The designer described this chain in 2021, consistent with the rulebook's Action Effects.
Yes — copying the discount assistant lets you immediately buy a card at its discount as part of the artifact's effect, and you resolve the new artifact's effect too. If that artifact is another Wine or Flask, you can use the discount assistant again in the same turn. The designer called this kind of chaining intended but rare. The card row is only refilled at the end of the turn.
The rulebook's Decorated Horn and Recruiting Assistants sections cover this.
Only the top assistant of a supply-board stack (normally three are available). The new assistant takes the level of the one you gave up, silver for silver, gold for gold, and the assistant you return goes onto the supply board silver side up.
Yes — Stone Key lets you take an idol back from any slot you choose to your supply crates. Freeing the slot with the highest printed value is usually best, since empty slots score at the end.
Several players agree from the card text and the rulebook's 'gain' keyword.
Buy Air Drop like any item. When you later play it from your hand, exile it and take an item from the card row for free. Unlike a normal purchase, that item goes straight into your hand, so you can use it this round. Exiling Air Drop any other way gives you nothing.
The rulebook's keyword entry for gaining an item makes it identical to buying from the row.
From the item card row, not the deck — gaining an item works like buying one from the row, except that you don't pay for it.
A normal draw takes the top card; Large Backpack takes the bottom card, which is usually an item you bought this round, so you get to use it right away. You don't need to keep bought cards separate.
Yes — the drawn card can be the one you exile. It's often better, though, to exile a Fear card from your play area after spending its boot.
Several players agree, consistent with the rulebook's discount keyword.
Its effect is a research action taken right away as part of the card, not a second main action. The cost of that research step is reduced by one jewel; it doesn't become "just a jewel". Played from hand you also pay the artifact's tablet, so a tablet-plus-jewel step costs two tablets in total. Resolved on purchase, the artifact's tablet is skipped.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
No — an artifact bought through Shovel goes to your play area like any bought artifact, never your hand. You get only the effect you can resolve on purchase (exile a card and gain a coin), and then Shovel's own text exiles the Candleholder. The jewel effect requires playing it from hand, which never happens here.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
No — its effect has two separate parts, and you get both: an optional upgrade (tablet to arrowhead or arrowhead to jewel) and 3 coins. With nothing to upgrade you still take the coins. Played for its plane icon instead, it is just travel, with no tablet and no effect.
Several players agree, citing CGE's promo-card rules.
No — Saxophone uses the silver side of up to three different assistants on top of the supply-board stacks, each once; "up to" only covers having fewer available or skipping one. Like Coconut Flask, it's a main action, the assistants aren't exhausted, and any travel they give is usable only for a free action that turn.
The designer confirmed in 2021 that the card works in solo and pointed to the promo rules.
It is meant to be used in solo, not removed. Shuffle the rival's acquired items and artifacts, draw 3 at random, and copy the effect of one of them (or none); the three are only your options. CGE's downloadable promo-card rules have a section on this.
The rulebook requires the tablet whenever an artifact's effect is played from hand, and players agree.
Yes — playing any artifact from your hand for its effect costs its tablet, even when the effect exiles the card itself. Only the use when you first buy it is free.
Keep the same difficulty mix (how many purple, red and green tiles) for the whole campaign, but choose the specific tiles at random each chapter, as in normal solo setup; the solo app does the same. Keeping one level is only a suggestion so results can be compared. Changing it between chapters is fine as long as you note what you used.
The publisher confirmed this in 2021.
Yes — the campaign works with leaders and with extra cards, guardians and assistants from the expansions. Leaders push scores up and make it easier, so CGE suggests adding the purple difficulty tiles from the free solo mini-expansion (also in the solo app's difficulty settings).
Shuffle the 6 tools from Chapter II and draw 2, 3 or 4 of them at random (for 0, 1 or 2 achievements). Choose one item and start Chapter III with your normal starting deck plus that item on the bottom. Early app text that said otherwise was an error.
The designer ruled on this in 2021.
No — you start each chapter with only the rewards listed at the end of the chapter just before it. Earlier rewards don't stack up.
One experienced player's reading; no official ruling.
Shuffle your starting cards first, then put the item underneath as the bottom card before drawing your opening hand. Don't shuffle it in; treat it like an item bought before the game began.
One experienced player's reading of the campaign rules; no official ruling.
By completing the chapter's goal. The point difference against the rival is your dominance score and can be negative without costing you the chapter.
One player's answer; no official ruling.
No — at the end of each game all exiled cards go back into their decks; each chapter starts from a fresh setup apart from the stated carry-over rewards.
The designer settled the two-idol case in 2021; players agree on the rest from the chapter rules.
The rival doesn't reveal a site tile or guardian. It draws one random idol token from the box (two for a level II site) and places them face up on its board; only duplicates go to the −1 space. There are no idols on the sites for you to gain in this chapter. The rival's normal dig actions still happen at camp sites and any sites you have discovered.
Several players agree from the chapter rules; no official ruling.
No — the crashed plane site gives 2 compasses or a free item from the card row, but never the Aeroplane. The Aeroplane is taken only by paying 5 coins as a main action, and you don't need to be at the crashed plane site to do it. Only the crashed plane site counts as a starting site; level I sites are discovered as usual, paying compasses.
The rival can't: the Owl is overcome only by paying three tablets, and the rival never spends resources. If you don't overcome it, you can still go on to Chapter II; you just start without the extra card that overcoming the Owl and the achievements would earn.
Any item you own at the end of the chapter. "Your deck" here means all your cards (deck, hand and play area), not just the draw pile.
Yes — the item card only replaces the idol. The site tile is placed as usual, and a guardian is added; for the rival, only in the rounds marked on its tile.
Two players agree; no official ruling.
Yes — the tile placed on the rival's board during setup scores for the rival.
One player's reading, citing the campaign rules; no official ruling.
No — a guardian spent this way goes to the bottom of the guardian stack and no longer counts as overcome, so it scores nothing.
One player's reading; no official ruling.
No — reaching it first is what the chapter asks. If you have a turn left after reaching it, you can still research there to take the 11-point temple tile.
Yes to both — once used, the extra archaeologist stays on the site where you placed it, like any placed archaeologist. Until you use it, you keep it.
Tunnel sites start already discovered, so digging there costs only travel, never compasses. The chapter's rival rules say the rival won't dig at tunnel sites that still have guardians.
Yes — chapters only describe their special setup; everything else follows normal setup, so every undiscovered site except the tunnels gets its idol(s), and base rules apply unless the chapter says otherwise.
One experienced player's reading; no official ruling.
If the rival's token is in a flooded row (below level 3), take it off the track, so its next research step can go to level 3. Otherwise the rival ignores flooding and researches as in the base game.
No — the notebook starts on row 3 without the rewards of that row or the ones below, and your extra starting assistant stays silver side up.
Several players agree from the chapter rules.
You lose only if your magnifying glass goes under. A flooded notebook stays where it is, but at each round end you gain Fear for every row it is below the water. Spaces stay usable until water tiles cover them; flooded spaces give no rewards.
The designer ruled on this in 2021.
Yes — when you gain one you immediately play it for its effect, just as with artifacts gained in normal play. Timing those gains is part of the chapter's puzzle.
Three of the assistants are new; the fourth is a replacement Miner, and the Stone Key is also a replacement. With Expedition Leaders, swap both in for the originals. The new Stone Key costs more because blue idol slots make it stronger, and the new Miner is better balanced, especially with the Captain. The originals can still be used for base-game-only play.
Several players agree, citing the expansion rules' note on the new temples.
Yes — the new items, artifacts, sites, guardians, idols and research tracks all work without leaders; the expansion rulebook says to mix the new cards and tiles into the base game, and that the new tracks can be used with or without leaders. Its design notes warn that the new temple tracks are harder to climb without leader abilities.
Two players agree, citing the expansion's player setup.
Yes — each leader starts with their four leader cards plus two Fear cards, as in the base game.
The publisher confirmed this in 2021.
Yes — pick any leader and use the base game's solo rules and rival tiles. The updated expansion rulebook (December 2021) adds solo notes for the new idols and the Lizard Temple. Leaders make the rival easier to beat, so raise the difficulty with the purple tiles or the solo app if you like.
The designer pointed to the updated rulebook's solo section in 2021, which players quote.
Its first Fear + arrowhead idol scores 3 points like its other unique idols, even though its board has no space for it; further copies are duplicates. This was added in the updated rulebook's solo section.
The designer pointed to the clarified solo rules in the updated rulebook in 2021 and 2022.
The rival never reveals it; only you do, when your magnifying glass reaches that row. When the rival researches, it advances as if the guardian weren't there. When it takes Overcome a Guardian while its magnifying glass is on the guardian's row, it ignores site guardians and takes the temple guardian, revealed or not. The updated rulebook spells this out.
Two players agree; no official ruling.
The rival has only a magnifying glass, so it follows the magnifying-glass path shown on the bridges. Nothing happens when it lands on the artifact space.
Count her archaeologist plus one snack token out on the main board: she needs both out before the rival places its third archaeologist. The designer first suggested other variants, then adopted this one.
Several players agree; it follows from the base rule that travel icons don't grant actions.
No — placing the archaeologist on the Captain's board is the main action, so a travel icon from that assistant can only pay for a free action (such as a boot-cost assistant) and is otherwise lost when the turn ends. Most assistants also offer a resource option instead.
Several players agree, citing the Captain's own card clarifications.
No — that space isn't a site, and an archaeologist there doesn't count as placed on the board. Cards that count placed archaeologists (like Circumstrument) ignore it, and Pathfinder's Sandals or Staff can't relocate it. Placing it there is a main action, even if the assistant you activate has a free-action effect.
Two players agree; it follows from the base rule on travel icons within a turn.
Yes — you can spend one plane on your main action and the other on a free action in the same turn; whatever is unused is lost when the turn ends.
Several players agree, quoting the Falconer's Return rules.
Advancing the eagle gives nothing by itself. On any turn you choose, return it to the start and take the effect of the space it was on or any earlier space. The coin and tablet-plus-plane spaces are free actions; the two activate-a-site spaces (level I and II) are main actions. You can do this as often as you like, but every use resets the eagle.
Play it for its effect (not its travel value) during a turn in which you discover a site, at any point before the guardian is drawn. Free actions can be slipped in mid-action, so after you see the site tile is fine. It doesn't work for a site discovered on an earlier turn.
One experienced player's reading; no official ruling.
No — you gain a tablet and a plane travel icon to spend that turn on any valid cost: a free action, or a main action such as digging, discovering or overcoming a guardian. Other costs, like compasses for discovering, still apply.
Several players agree, citing the final expansion rulebook.
Play it as a free action during a purchase, or when you gain an item (such as from a level I site's free item), to put that item straight into your hand. It applies to that one purchase, not to every buy. At round end it always returns to your hand, even from exile, and counts as one of your 5 cards, so you draw only 4 more.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
Yes, the whole card is a free action, coin and optional exile alike. The item exiled from the card row gives you nothing; a card's effect only happens when you play it from your hand. Refill the row as usual: slide cards toward the moon staff and deal into the empty end space.
Several players agree.
Yes — the upper half (marked with the lightning bolt) is a free action, but the 2-coins-for-a-jewel half is a main action.
Many players agree, quoting the Professor's rules.
Only on buying artifacts, from the card row or from his Archive, and he can combine suitcase compasses with compasses from his supply to pay one artifact. They can't pay for discovering sites, research or an artifact effect that costs a compass.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
No — an Archive artifact must first be bought, like any artifact. Suitcase tablets only help pay the tablet cost when you later play an artifact card from your hand; they can't pay to buy one.
At setup, draw the top 3 artifacts from the artifact deck and set them face up by the Professor's board. His cards let him swap Archive artifacts with the card row, and the first time the Archive is empty it is refilled with 3 new artifacts. Artifacts still in the Archive at the end don't score; only cards he bought do.
Several players agree; a separate main action would be marked by a dividing line.
Neither — the coin and the swap are one free action, and the swap only exchanges an artifact in the card row with one in the Archive. You buy it later with a normal buy action.
Each option is a reward tier: the coin is always available, the compass needs at least 1 artifact in your play area, and the compass-and-tablet option needs at least 2. You can always pick a lower tier.
Several players agree, quoting the Explorer's rules.
Yes — placing a snack token always costs whatever that token shows, however you use it. For Hike and Cartography you place an available snack on the card and pay its cost; the benefit is that you need no extra travel icons. Cartography then gives a tablet and lets you use the effect of any face-up idol on the board, without taking the idol.
Yes — the snack only frees the archaeologist to move. At the destination she pays all the normal costs of the action: the space's travel cost, plus the compasses if she's discovering a new site. Once all her snacks are used, her archaeologist stays where it is for the rest of the round. She is limited to three moves in rounds I–II and four in rounds III–V, counting the first placement.
The snack still comes back to your board at the end of the round as usual; an eruption doesn't destroy it. Snack tokens don't occupy a site or space, so they never block other players, and the site can still erupt.
One experienced player's reading; no official ruling.
No — relocating moves her like any archaeologist, with no snack left behind, so nothing stops her from returning to that site later.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
No — a snack token isn't a figure. Theodolite counts only archaeologists, Camera needs a figure currently in that row (so use it before moving her away), and a card that activates a site doesn't use snacks at all. Snacks only pay for moving her to Dig or Discover, including Dig or Discover actions granted by cards.
Yes — moving with a snack and paying the travel cost counts as placing the archaeologist, so the discount applies, as long as you also pay the snack's cost.
Several players agree, quoting the Mystic rules.
A ritual needs a trigger: playing one of the Mystic's starting cards for its exile effect, or putting an idol on one of the leader's blue idol slots. Either is a main action. You also need at least 2 Fear cards in your ritual pile, and each ritual returns 2, 3 or 4 of them to the Fear deck. Having Fear cards alone isn't enough, and exiled starting cards are gone for good.
One experienced player's reading of the Mystic rules; no official ruling.
No to both — he adds one Fear card only after drawing up to a full hand at the start of each round. Draw effects during turns don't trigger it. If his deck holds fewer cards (say 3 after exiling starting cards), he takes those plus the one Fear, for a 4-card hand.
The designer confirmed in 2026 that this interaction is legal, referring back to Cursed Idol.
Yes — Cursed Idol lets you use any one idol slot effect on your board, the five standard ones or your leader's blue one. That works even when the blue slot's effect is a main action, since it happens inside the artifact's effect. Cursed Idol still gives you its Fear card, and the Mystic can't use it to take a second Fear. An idol on a blue slot also counts as slotted for Pedestal and Stone Key.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
No — an idol placed on a blue slot gives one reward: either the blue option or one of the regular five. A travel icon from it, such as a plane, has to be used that turn, so fill the slot when you need it.
Two players agree, pointing to the expansion's icon reference.
It means you may activate any discovered site of that level, with no further restriction unless the card says so. It's explained on the back page of the expansion rulebook.
Two players agree, quoting the New Research Tracks rule.
The same as buying them from the temple row. Instead of advancing, a research action from those rows can buy the tiles the board shows at their normal temple cost.
Several players agree, citing the expansion's card notes.
Once — like any research reward, you may resolve that artifact's effect for free only when your magnifying glass reaches the space; each player gets it once. For cards that count rows, such as Hand Lens, the split artifact space counts as one row.
Yes — if that assistant is on top of a supply stack, you can use its silver effect even though that effectively gives a second main action. You can't search the stacks.
It is revealed when the first magnifying glass reaches its row. Any number of tokens can share that row, but none can advance past it until it is overcome. Any player with a research token there (a notebook counts) can overcome it by paying its cost; the first to do so takes it, with its points and boon, and later tokens pass freely. The row's bonus tile goes to the first token to arrive. A token still there at round end, with the guardian unbeaten, earns a Fear card.
Yes — the guardian flips as soon as your magnifying glass reaches its row. You may then resolve the row effect and the bonus tile in either order, and an upgrade bonus is optional, so you can decide after seeing what the guardian needs.
One experienced player's reading, which another player doubted; no official ruling.
Yes. A research token on the guardian's row counts as you being on that guardian's site. Bear Trap can overcome it once it's revealed, as long as no other player has a token on that row. Bow and Arrows gives a compass for it, but only one, even with both your tokens there.
No — each research token reaching the row takes one face-up tile of its choice until they run out, so one player can claim two with both tokens if tiles remain.
First draw as many as 2 cards. Then, optionally, put one of those newly drawn cards into your play area; only if you do that may you exile one card of your choice from hand or play area (the one you just put down is allowed) and take 1 coin. Nothing else is paid, and free actions can be slipped in between the steps.
The designer ruled on this in 2023.
Yes — for the rest of that round you may use it any number of times, each time exhausting one of your own unused guardian boons to upgrade instead (useful for a travel boon you can't use). You can't use another player's guardian, or a guardian already flipped face down.
Players are split, with most allowing it; no official ruling.
Probably yes — most players allow it because free actions can be played during your main action, between revealing the site and resolving its effects. A minority say its effect can't apply after the tile is out. To be safe, play it before discovering.
Several players agree, and the one dissenter retracted.
Yes — played for its effect, Parachute gives the compass, and you may also exile it to place an archaeologist with a two-plane discount. That discount only reduces that placement's travel cost; it isn't spare travel. Alternatively, play it just for its plane travel value.
One experienced player's reading; no official ruling.
Look at your top 4 cards and either exile up to 2 of them or take 1 into your hand. Either way, return the rest to the top of your deck in any order; nothing is discarded.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
Bought items normally go to the bottom of your deck; Landing Net lets items you buy go on top instead, so you draw them next. It's a passive effect lasting the rest of the round, including the same turn: play the Net for its coins, then buy an item.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
The discounts don't stack: they come from separate buys, and the discount assistant is a main action anyway. Tool Box is played as your main action and resolves the chosen item's effect as part of it, so copying Army Belt lets you buy an item at a 2-coin discount, even the Army Belt in the row.
Several players agree, citing the expansion's icon reference.
No — its checkmarked assistant icons mean the available assistants on the supply board, the top of each stack, not ones you own, and you can't search the stacks. Whatever they give, travel or a discounted buy, must be used that turn.
Many players agree; no official ruling.
Using it is a free action that gives you a coin and a boot. You can then spend the boot on travel that turn, for example to pay for digging as your main action. Pure travel boons carry no lightning bolt because they are simply spent toward a cost.
One player's reading of the card; no official ruling.
Yes — Cat activates a camp site that already has at least one archaeologist on it, yours or another player's.
One player's reading; no official ruling.
Any eligible card in the row, not just the one that replaced the exiled card.
One player's reading; no official ruling.
Yes — there's no dividing line on the card, so its whole effect, exile included, is one free action.
Yes — if the figure there isn't her own, she can go by spending a snack (paying its cost, if any) plus the space's travel cost. The only site she can't return to is one holding her own snack token.
The publisher confirmed the base game is required, and the campaign rules define solo and two-player co-op play.
It needs the Lost Ruins of Arnak base game (Expedition Leaders is optional). The campaign is for one player, or two playing cooperatively against a rival; it doesn't scale to three and has no competitive mode. Outside the campaign, its new leaders, cards, assistants, guardians, sites and research tracks can be added to normal competitive games.
The campaign rules state this directly.
One more player than you actually have, because the rival counts: set up a solo game as 2 players and a co-op game as 3. That affects stacks like temple tiles and the Journalist's articles. Don't place blocking tiles on any spaces.
The campaign rules state this directly.
The rival always plays red and uses the red action stack from the base solo rules: the 5 archaeologist tiles plus all 5 red tiles, 10 in total, one per turn until it passes. Each chapter starts again from that stack and applies only its own swaps; earlier chapters' changes don't accumulate.
The campaign rules state this directly.
No — choose turn order so the rival goes last in round I (starting resources follow that order), and at the end of each round pass the starting player marker as if the rival were another player. This differs from the base solo rules.
Many players agree, consistent with the campaign rules' General Gameplay section.
Yes — every chapter is set up and played like a normal game except for the changes it lists, so assistants are used in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 uses research bonus tiles, and so on. The setup picture is only a guide. As usual, guardians aren't placed at setup; one appears when a site is discovered.
The designer confirmed this in 2023, and the campaign rules' Customization section says the same.
Any leader: the Journalist or Mechanic, the Expedition Leaders leaders, or the simpler Prospector and Traveler, which suit newer players. You may pick a different leader each chapter, change the difficulty (Student, Normal, Arnakologist) between chapters, and in co-op the two players may even play on different difficulties.
The campaign rules state this directly.
Store the expansion's items, artifacts and assistants marked with the campaign symbol separately; the campaign introduces them through achievements and plot points. The new idols and guardians go into their usual piles, and the expansion's new sites aren't used in the campaign. Expedition Leaders content and other expansions such as Twisted Paths can be mixed in.
The campaign rules state this directly.
As soon as you meet an achievement's requirement, gain its card to the top of your deck without resolving it; in co-op either player may take it. Earned achievement cards and assistants go into the regular decks for future chapters, so they may show up in the card row. Ones you didn't earn go back into the separate bag and are not used.
The campaign rules state this directly.
No — a plot-point card is a one-game bonus. You start the next chapter with it on the bottom of your deck (either player in co-op), and afterwards it goes into its regular item or artifact deck. Achievement cards never start at the bottom of your deck; they go straight into the regular decks.
Several players agree; the campaign rules only list those carry-overs.
No — cards, resources, assistants and guardians reset each chapter, and exiling a campaign card only removes it for that game. Apart from plot-point cards and newly earned cards joining the decks, the only thing that carries over is the campaign sheet.
You need to meet the requirement at one moment; you gain the card right then, and can spend the idols or guardians afterwards. You keep guardians after Pack of Guardians, and exiling the Soda Pop later doesn't undo its achievement. Guardians discarded to pay for research in Chapter 2 no longer count. A card earned in the last round goes on top of your deck, so it's only useful that game with a draw effect, but it still scores its points.
Choose one option: the left effect now, or keep the card for its right-hand effect later. A saved effect without a free-action symbol can only be used as a main action, and nothing forces you to wait. In co-op the card's benefit is gained once: the revealer takes an immediate effect, while either player may use a saved one. You collect the option's story symbol the moment you choose it, even if you never use the saved effect.
The campaign rules state this directly.
Pay and take any idol as usual, reveal the encounter card and place the site tile, then resolve the encounter either before or after the site tile's effect; it doesn't replace the site's effect. The site's guardian is drawn last, so an encounter's immediate effect (like Guardian's Treasure adding a guardian to a camp site) happens before it.
The campaign rules state this directly.
Paths are always marked from the center outward: a symbol goes at the start of its path or continues an already-marked one. At an intersection, a symbol can continue the other path from there, as the rulebook's pawprint example shows, but your next symbol of that type starts back at the beginning.
The campaign rules state this directly.
Meeting the chapter goal wins regardless of score; your chapter score is your score minus the rival's and may be negative. In co-op, add both scores and divide by two (keep the half point), then subtract the rival's score. Round only the final campaign total. Accepting a loss scores −10. The total campaign score matters for the ending.
The campaign rules state this directly.
No — a pigeon sends your partner one of your resource tokens (coin, compass, tablet, arrowhead or jewel), so you need one to send. Sending and receiving are free actions, even on your partner's turn; a used pigeon is flipped until round end.
No sharing beyond what the rules allow (pigeons, and paying toward Chapter 1's fog): you play as two separate players with your own boons, assistants and resources, and "you" on a card means the acting player. For card effects, only the rival is an opponent.
One player's reading applying the base reserve-tile rule; another questioned the Chapter 3 part.
Take fear tiles as in the base game: −2 points each, and they can be exiled. In Chapter 3, Fear cards set on the Find Your Courage achievement aren't available, so once the board's Fear stack is empty you take tiles.
The designer ruled on this twice in 2025, matching the campaign rules.
No — each time the crashed plane site is activated you get its normal effect (2 compasses or a free item from the row) and remove one repair token. Digging there and card effects that activate a site (Dog, Tent, Black Cat and so on) both count. The site is a camp (tent) site, not a level I site, and the rival placing there never removes tokens.
The campaign rules state this directly.
Each site discovered (two per advance in co-op) lets you advance the fog one row as a free action paying the travel shown, with the usual travel hierarchy. You need both: a discovery and the travel payment, paid in full in one turn. In co-op your partner may pay part, on that turn. Five advances are needed: the fifth lifts it past the birds and removes it. The rival's research ignores the fog.
The designer ruled on the row in 2023, and the campaign rules cover the rest.
Although the tiles cover two rows, they sit on the sixth row only; rows 6 and 7 stay separate. To overcome one, a research token must be on its space; then use a main action or an effect that overcomes a site guardian (Bear Trap works; effects that move guardians don't). In Arnakologist mode only paying the doubled cost works. Overcoming doesn't move your token, and a token on a guardian space at round end gains Fear.
The campaign rules state this directly.
No — the goal is overcoming the Owl (and in co-op the Eagle). Reaching the temple and researching a 6- or 11-point tile only earns the Climb to the Summit achievement.
The campaign rules state this directly.
No — its Discover tile is swapped for the green Buy an Item tile, so it only digs at camp sites and sites you've discovered; all sites stay available for your fog progress. Its research ignores the fog and the research-track guardians, so it reaching the temple first doesn't make you lose.
The campaign rules state this directly.
Yes — before drawing, search the item deck and take the first Ostrich, Sea Turtle or Pack Donkey you find, one for each player, on top of each player's deck. Solo takes one.
The campaign rules state this directly.
Two every round: the green Research tile replaces her Overcome a Guardian tile, and her red Research tile stays in the shuffled 10-tile stack. Only when setting up round IV does the red one go on the bottom. She climbs two rows a round and reaches the temple on her last turn of round IV.
The campaign rules state this directly.
Instead of paying a step's cost (even an idol cost, but not a temple tile), discard one of your guardians, spent or not, to advance your own token. The guardian returns to the bottom of the guardian stack, no longer counts as overcome, and scores nothing, so earn the guardian achievement before spending them.
One player's reading; no official ruling.
No — Chapter 2 has only four rounds, so the widgets normally gained at the start of round V never arrive.
The campaign rules state this directly.
Tunnel sites are already discovered, so you pay only travel. You can't dig at or activate one until the tunnel below it in the same column is free of guardians; the lowest is open from the start, and its guardians are revealed the first time you use it. Several guardians on a site are overcome one per Overcome action, and you gain a Fear for each guardian when returning from there. Any way of removing them counts, Guardian's Crown included. The rival ignores tunnels that still have guardians.
The designer confirmed this in 2023, matching the campaign rules.
No — you can't move above one until it's removed. With a research token in the row below, remove it with a research action paying any one of the three costs at the top of the track; you keep it for 2 points. Advancing afterwards is a separate research at the normal cost. The rival isn't blocked. This and clearing the tunnels can be done in either order; you need both to win.
The campaign rules state this directly.
Artifact Expertise needs 5 artifacts in your play area solo, or a combined 10 across both play areas at the same time in co-op. Find Your Courage counts Fear cards you exile (including the Captain's Hidden Fear); the Mystic's Fear cards count only when used in a ritual. Whether an artifact bought with Shovel counts isn't settled; players lean no, since Shovel exiles it.
The campaign rules state this; one player's reading that level is safe contradicts them.
No — at the end of each round the magnifying glass, and Kutil's figures once found, must be above the tide tile's row, or you lose immediately. The glass starts level with the water, so it must climb in round I. Your notebook may be under water, but you gain a Fear card for each row it is below the tide at round end, after the tide rises; those cards are shuffled under your deck with your other played cards.
The campaign rules state this directly.
You start with an idol and an assistant instead of normal starting resources; the idol is a spare face-down idol with no bonus. The two middle sites can't be used at first; once the camp sites flood, they're revealed and count as both camp sites and level I sites, so effects targeting either type work on them. Base assistants are set up as usual.
One player's reading; no official ruling.
Yes — starting on row 3 counts as having advanced three rows, so the Diary immediately offers 2 of its 3 benefits.
The designer confirmed both points in 2023, and the updated campaign rules include them.
No idols — each level I site gets an encounter card instead of an idol (first printings left out those words). To win you must keep the convoy from reaching the temple and reach the temple yourself, playing out all 5 rounds; the chapter overview card was correct.
The campaign rules state this directly.
After the rival resolves any of its four remaining Dig actions (the coin dig is removed), the convoy advances one step along its S-path, even if that dig did nothing. In co-op, both convoys move. The convoy doesn't block spaces or interact with sites and encounter cards.
The designer ruled on this in 2023.
Yes — gaining a card counts as buying it without paying, so buying or gaining a card above the convoy's column moves it back one space. You can also spend a guardian's boon when your archaeologist shares its site. Only one convoy moves back per card or boon.
The Chapter 5 rules state this; one player believed the rival never gets encounter cards.
It never resolves the card. In Chapter 5 it keeps the card and scores 3 points for it at the end. In chapters where its Discover tile is removed (such as Chapter 1), it never meets one.
Players agree its research token slides the cataract tiles like anyone's, but disagree on the shortcut: one reading says it never takes it, since it can't pay the idol, and another says nothing forbids it. With no official ruling, the more cautious reading is that the rival follows the normal path.
The campaign rules state this directly.
Take a Chapter 6 encounter card for every path completely crossed off on your campaign sheet (none if no path is complete), and put each on the level I site its path illustration shows; it isn't your choice. The research track gets neither temple tiles nor research bonus tiles.
The designer clarified this in 2023, matching the campaign rules.
No — failing a confrontation ends the game as a loss, but if you stop both ceremonies you keep playing the rest of the round, to chase achievements or the Arnakologist requirement of reaching the temple.
The campaign rules state this directly.
At the start of rounds II and III, each discovered level I or II site with no guardian gets one from Havran's stack. After Havran's Escape, three guardians are revealed in the chamber at a time, and each one you overcome reveals another; you can't advance until all are gone (site guardians don't count), which also earns Control the Guardians.
The campaign rules state this directly.
He advances the ceremony on his Overcome a Guardian tile and both Research tiles, but none of them remove assistants: his magnifying glass is parked in the temple and he has no notebook in play.
The campaign rules state this directly.
Right after you enter a chamber you may place an idol there for free and take that slot's effect, never before reaching it. Havran's fear tiles and your idols don't block each other, but placing an idol on a fear tile adds 2 Fear cards to your play area. An idol placed in a chamber is no longer yours and scores no points.
The campaign rules state this directly.
Only Chapter 6's own three achievements count, each adding the points on its cup to the chapter score (in co-op, after averaging and subtracting Havran). Havran scores the leftmost temple space his magnifying glass blocks.
One player's reading of the expansion rules; no official ruling.
No — only the research-track idols, where you look through the stack and choose, give a bonus. Elsewhere a face-down idol is just an idol.
The campaign rules state this directly.
Your choice, except in Chapter 6 after accepting a loss in Chapter 5, where the Expedition Leaders red moon staff isn't allowed. The setup pictures show the normal one.
Several players agree, quoting the Journalist setup.
Put one article token under every level I and level II site (12 in all). Place 2 feature articles in the notches above your board, or 3 in a two-player game; solo games use the 2-player setup. Choose 2 of the 4 newspaper tiles at random and place each with a random side up; they're balanced to be equally strong.
The designer confirmed in 2025 that a later turn is fine.
No to both. Writing is optional, and while your own archaeologist is at the site you can spend a travel icon to write it on a later turn that round, or come back later in the game. With a double travel icon you can pay a guardian and an article on the same turn, if the article is still there.
Writing on discovery is a free action, but you can publish at once only on a lightning-bolt space; a space without a bolt is a main action, so that waits for another turn. The bottom reward also needs an article placed, after the four spaces above are full; completing a row unlocks a blue idol space rather than giving an idol. Optional parts of a reward can be declined.
Several players agree, citing the Journalist's ability and the Waterfall Temple rules.
Yes — her notebook may be one row above the magnifying glass at any time, even before the glass moves, including beside the Waterfall Temple's hidden site, where rows are read from the rewards on the right. If it reaches a bonus tile first, it takes it, which is why newer icons say "research token" for the bronze 2-point tile.
Neither — each play lets you pay one plane for one feature article, and you must finish resolving the card, cost included, before your main action (other free actions may be slotted in while resolving it).
One player's reading; no official ruling.
Yes — the text after "and you may" belongs to the same free action as gaining the coin or compass.
Rotating the wheel is a free action, but only when an effect lets you (such as her round-III monkey assistant). A travel symbol from it must be used that turn, for example toward sending an archaeologist or research, or it's lost. On a side without a gold widget you take either the coin/compass or the travel symbol, not both.
One player's reading of the card layout; no official ruling.
No — only the top half with the lightning bolt is free; the exile option below has no bolt, so it's your main action.
The publisher answered this in 2023.
No — the encounter card is part of those sites' reward, so leave the sites out if you don't want encounters. In a normal game, the numbered card icon means draw from that encounter deck and pick one of the card's two rewards. These sites aren't used in the campaign.
Two players agree, citing the expansion rulebook.
Yes — use the Waterfall and Tree Temples in regular games like any temple. Like the Expedition Leaders tracks, they're designed with leaders in mind and are a little harder.
Several players agree, quoting the campaign and expansion rules.
At setup, cataract tokens cover the left costs of the two cataract steps (into row 3 and from row 6 to row 7). Whoever researches into that row pays the uncovered cost, then slides the token over, so the next player faces the other cost. Both of your tokens may switch between the connected paths freely: from the right pool you have two options, from the left only one. Only the magnifying glass may take the shortcut, paying an unused idol as part of the cost.
One player's answer citing the expansion rulebook.
It discards the top site tile, per the expansion's Hidden Site rule for solo.
One idol per player in each stack, so a solo game (set up for two) uses two. When your notebook reaches that row, you look through the stack and take one. An idol you place in an idol chamber leaves your board and no longer scores its 3 points; the chamber's benefit replaces them.
Several players agree.
Shuffle them and make three stacks as even as you can; one stack ends up bigger, which is fine (the Snake Temple setup does the same).
Several players agree.
In the block of campaign cards at the bottom of the expansion's card deck, below the chapter cards. The Read This First sheet and the back of the campaign book show how the deck is divided. Don't shuffle any expansion cards into the general decks before starting.
Set your hand aside and look through your whole deck at once, not one card at a time. Add up to 2 non-Fear cards to your hand and put every Fear card back as your deck; all other cards go to your play area as discards, without effects. Afterwards your deck holds only Fear cards.
One player's reading, disputed by another; no official ruling.
When bought you can only use the first effect (for Peculiar Egg, nothing). When you later play it from your hand you choose either effect, including the stronger exile option.
Two players agree.
No — "up to 3 guardians" means up to three different guardians.
If you have an unspent guardian boon you simply gain the jewel; the guardian isn't flipped. If you don't, you get the other option: refresh a spent guardian and take the arrowhead (you still get the arrowhead with no guardian to refresh). Spending a boon's travel icon on nothing is allowed, so you can deliberately end up with no unspent boon.
In addition: place your archaeologist with a one-boot discount and activate that site as usual, then you may also activate one adjacent site.
Several players agree.
No to both. Wicker Cart gives that many different options (three guardians can't mean three compasses), and each play of Sacred Branch flips only one unused guardian.
Several players agree; one reply noted the rules don't say where the tile goes.
It activates the bottom tile of the level I site stack, and that tile stays at the bottom. "Free" refers to travel only: costs printed on the site are still paid, and an Explorer whose archaeologist is already out uses a snack as usual, paying its cost.
Two players agree.
Yes — resolve the exiles one at a time. After the first, Hidden Fear's Fear card is in your play area, so the second exile can take it.
Two players agree, reflecting the expansion's glossary.
No — gaining an artifact is like buying it without paying, but if it goes to your hand or deck you don't resolve its effect. That differs from the base game's free-buy icon, which does let you use it.
Several players agree, citing the base gain keyword.
No — gaining means you skip the cost. Unless the card says otherwise, a gained item goes to the bottom of your deck like a bought one (achievement cards are the exception, going on top).
Mine: take 2 coins and put 1 coin on each of two sites, which only you can collect by visiting them. Frequent Digs: relocate an archaeologist to a level I site even if occupied, and activate it. Monkey Cave's befriend icon is a 1-coin discount on buying an item.
Single players' readings of each card; no official rulings.
Motorcycle is a free action: always 1 compass, plus another for each of your archaeologists already on a site costing at least a car. Stone Feather's tablet on the research tile comes from the supply. Radio Transceiver is your main action, so travel from the assistant it activates can only pay for a free action that turn.
Two players agree, matching the base rulebook's icon definition.
Put a card from your hand into your play area without using it, the same card-down cost found elsewhere in the game.
No — Blindsight replaces an idol's effect, so with no idol there's nothing to swap. Pick sites that still have idols.
No — the new double-sided board (Spider and Owl Temple maps) is an extra option. You still need the original board for the Bird and Snake Temples.
The designer recommended mixing them into the campaign in 2025; players agree on the rest.
The new guardians, assistants, idols and site tiles can be shuffled into the normal piles on any map, and the designer recommends adding them to the Missing Expedition campaign too for variety. Only the Spider Temple's dark tablets and the Owl Temple's half temple tiles and lantern need the new maps; elsewhere dark tablets can just act as normal tablets. Keep Missing Expedition campaign components (marked with a small icon) separate until the campaign adds them.
The designer answered this in 2025 by pointing to the rulebook.
No, not officially. The designer points to the Twisted Paths rulebook on this, and the new tracks' shapes and mechanics don't fit the older overlays. Mixing them is an unofficial experiment.
Shuffle and draw blocking tiles as usual; each one covers the right-hand space of its camp site, whatever travel icon that space shows. To match a tile's icon to a camp, treat the five camps in order from the left as the coin, compass, tablet, arrowhead and jewel camps, even if they show other rewards. Blocking works the same on every map, and the card row size is unchanged.
Several players agree; the expansion rulebook only lists differences.
Yes — Twisted Paths only explains what's new, so everything else follows base setup: fill the bonus-tile squares with random face-up research bonus tiles, set up the card row as usual, and keep the item, artifact and Fear decks beside the board, since it has no deck spaces. The new bonus tiles can be mixed into the general supply.
Shuffle all your assistants together and split them into three roughly equal stacks. There's no need to remove any, and keeping them all makes top-of-stack effects more useful.
Only for balanced or tournament play. The rule exists because activating the idol camp site together with the draw-a-card idol gave several leaders too strong an advantage; the designer says keeping them in is fine for casual games.
Any altar on a row entirely below your token's row. It doesn't need to be connected to your space or directly beneath it, so a token near the top can still invoke a first-row altar. Being level with an altar isn't enough: a token still on the starting step can't invoke the first altar.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
No — invoking an altar costs a dark tablet, whether you're placing a new artifact on an empty altar or using one already there. The artifact comes from the card row, not your hand, so the usual tablet for playing an artifact doesn't apply. The card row refills at the end of your turn as usual.
Several players agree; one player thought the artifact would be exiled.
No to both — the artifact stays on the altar for the rest of the game. You resolve its main effect (if that lets you exile a card, you exile another card as normal), but effects that only work when the card is played from your hand don't apply: Ruby Candleholder's or Scepter of Kar-Kal's self-exile, or the bottom effects of Gong of Awakening and Peculiar Egg. Effects that don't depend on the card being in your hand still work: Sundial, for example, can still pass for a jewel.
From the research track and from four framed sites on the Spider Temple map: the rightmost level II location, the rightmost level I location in each of the two rows, and the 2-tablet camp site. The dark effect there (gain a dark tablet, sometimes paying a card or coin, or taking Fear) applies only when you actually dig, discover or relocate there, not when you just activate the site, and it is optional.
Two players agree, quoting the Invoking an Altar rule.
No — you get an ordinary tablet, and invoking an altar requires a dark tablet.
Two players agree, citing the base game's discovery steps.
The idol, as in the base game. Then the site tile, then the optional dark effect, and only after that is the guardian drawn.
The designer confirmed this reading in 2025.
Yes — once your token reaches a row granting that ability you keep it on every row above, and it only improves. Use a research action to buy one of the indicated temple tiles at its cost instead of advancing. The same idea as in Expedition Leaders: buying a lower-level temple tile early, not getting one free.
Several players agree, citing the base Snake Temple rule.
No — it must be an unused idol from your supply crates; slotted idols are locked, exactly as for the same symbol on the Snake Temple.
Several players agree, citing the base game's multi-tile rule.
No — each time one of your research tokens enters the row you choose one of the remaining face-up tiles, as on the Snake Temple, so your magnifying glass and notebook can each take one if any are left.
One experienced player's answer; it matches the base Research rules.
No — on any temple the two tokens may take different paths, as long as the notebook never goes higher than the magnifying glass.
It is removed along with the site: once the unoccupied site has been activated, put both its site tile and its guardian (if any) back in the game box.
Several players agree, quoting the Taking Temple Tiles rule.
Buying one is a separate research action, taken on a later turn while your magnifying glass, notebook or lantern shares the tile's space; you pay its cost and don't move. It's optional: you can keep climbing, but once you've left the space you can't buy that tile unless another of your tokens reaches it. Research bonus tiles, by contrast, are taken free and at once.
No — every Owl Temple tile you buy scores its purple points at the end, paired or not. Any two tiles, whatever their values, can be combined to form an extra idol slot, and an idol there counts as a slotted idol, including for the Owl Idol's per-slot effect.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
One tile per 5- and 10-point slot; there are exactly enough. A pair of 1-point tiles left over is normal: it's used only in a 4-player game, where those spaces hold three tiles.
One player's reading of the setup rules; no official ruling.
No — setup places those idols face down, so collecting one gives no idol bonus, though it still counts as an idol.
Two players agree; no official ruling.
You get the lantern only once your magnifying glass has entered a secret passage, so move the glass there first. The notebook still can't go higher than your magnifying glass, or than your lantern once you have one, whichever is higher.
The rival takes Owl Temple tiles only through its Owl Temple action tile, never just by passing them. That tile takes the lowest tile on the research track itself, with the decision arrow breaking ties, and ignores rewards in the secret passages (future prints will clarify the wording). The rival does gain any idols or tiles in a secret passage it enters while advancing.
One player's reading, disputed by another; no official ruling.
No — the rival never resolves artifact effects. It only adds dark tablets and possibly a new artifact to an altar; a new artifact, chosen from the card row by the decision arrow, goes on the lowest empty altar, and nothing happens if the rival's magnifying glass isn't above that altar.
One player's reading, quoting the base solo rules.
No — as in the base solo rules, the rival never gains or spends resources and never takes Fear; its dig only blocks the site. The Owl Temple idol symbol uses a face-up idol's effect and doesn't grant an idol anyway.
One player's reading, disputed by another; no official ruling.
Yes — those site icons let you use the silver or gold side of any assistant on top of a supply stack, with no free-action restriction.
Two players agree, citing both rulebooks.
Yes — the upgrade half is the normal Upgrading Assistants effect, which also refreshes the assistant; the Twisted Paths index says the same.
No — Miner's Helmet ignores Fear icons on site tiles. Camp sites are printed on the board, not tiles, so their Fear still applies.
One player's reading; no official ruling.
One per play: when you play it, place a jewel on your magnifying glass and gain it the next time the glass advances; later moves give nothing more.
Two players agree.
No — there's no general rule change. You still need an archaeologist there unless a specific card lets you overcome a guardian elsewhere.
The designer confirmed the combo in 2026.
Yes — the combo is legal. Idol Research lets you use one idol-slot effect as part of its own effect, so a slot effect that would normally be a main action doesn't count as a second one. Cursed Idol from Expedition Leaders works the same way.
The designer ruled on this in 2026.
Any site, as long as it's in the single row directly above your archaeologist's row; it doesn't have to be in the same column. Choosing a level II site costs you 2 Fear, as the card shows.
“You pick any site but only from one row - the one directly above your archaeologist.”
— Elwen, designer
Two players agree; no official ruling.
Nothing — only the Mechanic can use the gear icon, so for anyone else that part of the effect does nothing.
Two players favor counting it and one disagrees; no official ruling.
Probably yes — Tool Box is already in your play area while its effect resolves, so most players count it toward the Thermometer's total. One reply leans the other way, and there is no official ruling.