Pirates of Maracaibo FAQ
188 questions players ask · Updated Nov 11, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup
Components
- Are marker cubes or treasure limited, and what do you do when you run out?
- Is the green arrow missing from the ship board's residence and ship-acquire icon a mistake, and does the icon work differently from the rulebook's?
- What does the bottom-right bonus on the ship board do for a residence or card that has no green arrow?
- When an upgrade or residence says to pay the usual costs, do your permanent discounts still apply?
- Does the +2 raiding power on the middle column of the last rulebook page apply to every die?
Player Turn
- Can you take 5 coins instead of playing a card when you land on a residence?
- On a card or upgrade with several lightning-bolt actions, can you choose the order?
- When a location or island shows two separate banners or reward boxes, do you take both actions?
- Are Tier II cards revealed only as players buy cards, so some may never come out in a game?
- Can you end movement on a card with opponents' ships when you have no doubloons to pay them?
- What happens when your ship ends its move on a card with opposing ships?
- Do permanent discounts stack?
- Do permanent card-cost discounts also reduce the cost of building a residence?
- If a card's effect scores points equal to your income, does the card you just bought count toward that income?
- When an effect says to acquire a card for 3 extra coins, do you pay the card's cost plus 3?
- What happens to discarded quest cards when the quest deck runs out?
- If you stop on a location card and do not use it for 5 doubloons, is the card discarded?
Ship Board and Upgrades
- Does the ship upgrade that lets you buy a residence or improvement from the card display skip the card's cost?
- How do the red, beige and green scrolls on the ship board work, and does a green scroll pay out again each round?
- What does the ship upgrade icon with a yellow arrow pointing to a treasure island do?
- Do step-reduction ship upgrades that score points pay per step, or once per upgrade?
Raiding and Treasure
- Can a raid action be used again if you raid a second time in the same turn?
- Within one raid, can you spend raiding power on the same raid action more than once?
- When a raid uses only one die, do you get the free reroll?
- When one raid gives you two treasures, must they be the same type?
- Can you take two treasures in one raid if you have two take-treasure upgrades?
- Do bonus swords from owned improvements add to an immediate raid's sword value?
- After burying a treasure, must you take the bury bonuses from left to right?
- Does burying a treasure on a bonus space free that bonus for the next treasure of that type?
- Can a treasure already above the line move onto a freed bonus spot, or can an unburied treasure fill it?
- Is there a limit on treasure stored above the shovel line?
- What is the larger square box at the top of each treasure track for?
Exploration Track
- If you forfeit one movement point for its bonus, can you still move the explorer up to the remaining points?
- If you forfeit all of your explorer's movement, do you still get the reward for the space you are on?
- If you move fewer steps than allowed on the exploration track, can you claim both step-reduction bonuses?
- Can I trade movement steps for victory points more than once per explore action (e.g. 6 steps for 12 points)?
- When you claim the crossed-swords space on the exploration track, do bonus strength from upgrades still apply?
- What is the 3-doubloon icon on the starting space of the exploration track for?
- Once your Explorer is on the last exploration space, can you still take the explore action to claim the bonuses?
Figureheads
- Can the Nautilus figurehead's gold-for-movement ability be used more than once in one explore action?
- With the Nautilus figurehead, can you give up all explore movement and still collect gold?
- When do you receive the Nautilus gold bonus relative to the space's effects?
- Does the B Dragon figurehead let you move up to two extra spaces or exactly two?
- Does the Whale figurehead's per-quest income trigger when you receive immediate doubloon income from a ship upgrade?
- Does the bury action from Figurehead K need to match the chosen die colour?
Actions From Effects
The Gulf
- Do you pay the usual residence cost when you build a residence from the Gulf?
- Which cards can your ship move into the Gulf from, and must you stop there?
- Can a ship skip the Gulf and move straight to Maracaibo?
- Do permanent raid, explore and discount bonuses apply to actions taken in the Gulf?
- Do you always get a ship upgrade in the Gulf, or only with the raid action?
- Can ships share the Gulf or Maracaibo, and do you pay opponents when you land there?
Maracaibo
- In the third round, does the round end as soon as a player reaches Maracaibo?
- In the third round, can more than one player reach Maracaibo and take its reward?
- Do you have to pay 1 coin to land in Maracaibo when another player is already there?
- In the final round, can the second-to-last player still reach Maracaibo after the first player has?
End of Round
Endgame Scoring
- Does the end-of-game symbol on the hideout income area pay extra income at game end?
- What do the objective card's gem and money requirements mean?
- Is there a cap on how many points an Improvement's end-game scoring can give, such as 7 points per 3 pearls?
- Who scores victory points for placing a marker cube on a treasure island?
- How are Quest cards scored at endgame?
- How is a tie broken at the end of the game?
- Do the rivers you cross score points at game end?
Solo Mode
- Can you use both Fog of War modules, locations and improvements, in a solo game?
- How does Jordan move when the location he wants is still face down under Fog of War?
- Does Jordan have to move one column closer to Maracaibo, like a player?
- What happens when none of the actions on Jordan's solo card are possible?
- What happens when Jordan starts his turn in the Gulf?
- When Jordan ends his movement in the Gulf, does he take the full set of actions?
- Can Jordan raid or explore before his first ship upgrade, while his cube is on the first space?
- When Jordan's B solo card sends him to explore, does the explorer move happen before the explore bonus?
- Does Jordan target location cards before improvement cards?
- Does Jordan's movement avoid or pass through your ship, and do you get a doubloon when he lands near you?
- In solo play, if you tie Jordan on points, who wins?
- Does Jordan gain income or victory points between rounds?
- Does Jordan score points from point-income cards at the end of a round in solo mode?
- In solo play, does Jordan use Black Market tiles, and do you need a set in Jordan's colour?
- Where does Jordan's marker cube go when he gets a ship upgrade, and where does his second upgrade go?
- Do Jordan's bonuses on the Explore and Raid tracks stack across columns?
- Does Jordan move twice on the Caribbean when an explore action gives extra steps?
- Does Jordan buy a card before other actions in Fog of War, and does he still flip face-down locations?
- Where does Jordan place his token when he reaches the end of the exploration track?
- On the branching exploration track, how does Jordan choose a branch?
- How many points does Jordan score for each improvement card at game end?
Modules
- In Fog of War, where do treasure value tiles go when a location is flipped?
- With Fog of War: Locations, when are the ruby market tiles placed?
- Can the BGA solo rule for Jordan with both Fog of War modules be used in a printed-rulebook game?
- Is selling a ruby at the Gulf part of your main Gulf action, or an extra?
- How many rubies can you sell in one Gulf stop, and what do they pay?
- In what order do you resolve a ruby sale and a Gulf action or ship upgrade in the same turn?
- How does the Quest Hunters module change endgame quest scoring?
- In solo Quest Hunters, how many quest cards does Jordan start with, and how are his quests scored?
- With the Retirement module, do all players still start with two figures?
- When halving an odd Residence cost for the Retirement module, do you round up or down?
- Are card discounts applied before the Retirement module halves a price?
- Can each player use the Retirement tile more than once?
- Can the Residence Discount tile be used in the original Maracaibo game?
- In Pirate Skirmish combat, do coloured dice bonuses apply?
- If an explorer resets to the start with the Retirement tile, does it still score river-crossing points at game end?
Glossary
- Does the Nautilus figurehead's movement exchange need at least one movement step left after the subtraction?
- Does the ship board icon for paying a coin to an opponent to occupy their card mean something else?
- What does the residence icon at the bottom of the ship board mean, and is the residence free?
- Do the doubloon or point income icons on a cube space pay out once when the cube is placed, or every round?
- Does a quest icon requiring 3 or 5 treasures mean any mix, or one type?
- Does the Whale tile's coin per contract count as coin income for quests?
- What does the ship board icon showing three treasures mean?
Pirates of Maracaibo: CommandersExpansion
- Does Rajesh get a space's bonus for an explorer that did not move there?
- Does Victor's option to set his dice to 7 still get the +2 colour-dice bonus?
- If Victor sets his die to 7 instead of rolling, does an immediate colour raid still add its bonus to reach 13?
- When Victor does not roll and gains extra treasure, can he choose different treasure colours?
- Is the Commanders expansion compatible with solo mode?
- What does Jordan do when his solo card offers only a fort or an improvement while he is already in the last column?
- When the neutral explorer and your explorer are on different branches, how far ahead can the neutral explorer be?
- When the Cursed Ship forces you to stop, can you move backwards onto it?
- Does Jordan obey a cursed ship's effect when he lands on it?
- What does the crossed-swords income ability on Escarlata's tile do?
- Do Escarlata's own +5 boosts or colour-dice swords count as permanent swords for her income?
- When a Maracaibo trail spot lets you play a quest for immediate points, is that quest scored again at the end, and can it be reused?
- Can the Ruby Supply module be combined with the Rum Market from the Commanders expansion?
- Is the dead end at the bottom right of the new explorer track a one-way trap?
- Can you move backwards onto the 6-point corner space on the new explorer board?
- Does Vicious Viviana's easier-condition power override the Quest Hunters harder-condition rule?
- Where does the Retirement tile go on the new Commanders explorer track?
- Can you leave out parts of the Commanders expansion, such as forts, cannons or some commanders?
- Does Vicious Viviana's quest scoring bonus apply during the game or only at endgame scoring?
- Does leftover rum score points at the end of the game?
- Does the Quest scoring space let you score a quest twice, and can the same quest be played again?
- Do you get the Commander income and the cannon figurehead income when you take income?
- Can you place a fort on a newly drawn location card?
- How does the Sour Seraphina rum trade bonus work with the 7 coins and the ship card?
- Does Dabora's discount apply to residence cards as well as improvements?
- Can Dabora's rum effect trigger when moving from the Gulf into Maracaibo?
- Do you need at least one cannon to attack a Fort, and can you attack one without any?
- Do you choose which fort to fight before rolling when an icon lets you fight any fort?
- Can you spend victory points below zero to bribe a Fort's guard?
- What does the Captain Nel green sword coin skill count?
- Do commander abilities such as getting rum activate before the island's own effects?
- Does a commander's black market tile get placed at setup or when activated?
- Does the Ravaging Ravesh neutral explorer score for the Sextant card's river-crossing points?
- Why would you place a defeated fort token on your hideout board instead of an activation space?
- Does Escarlata's rum income count raiding power that only applies to a specific die colour?
- Do the Kraken Kahn and Looting Lanister commanders activate their Black Markets when placed at the start of the first turn?
- Can you look at the public figurehead tableau before picking your private figurehead with Fearsome Fang?
- Does Victor Vile's firepower addition apply when attacking a Fort?
- Does attacking a Fort count as raiding for Escarlata's commander ability?
- How does the commander-swap auction in setup end, and does its price go below 3 coins?
- When Jordan reaches Maracaibo in solo mode, which Fort does he attack?
- When Jordan attacks a Fort, does he score the fort's printed victory points and also 7 points?
- What does the green-arrow icon on a Commanders board do?
- When a treasure sits on an exploration space, who gets it, and can you pick it back up?
- How can you gain the benefit of the space your Explorer is currently on?
- How does Scarlet Ebuto's rum barrel income ability work?
- When Looting Lanister's rum market puts rum on his slot and his black market is on the same island, does the black market activate twice?
- If you take the Gulf's explore action with the neutral explorer, does its current space's benefit count as a second use?
- When a card has two types, such as ship and person, does it count for both types on a quest?
- Does Jordan take forts on the exploration track, or only when his solo card says so?
Pirates of Maracaibo: Bermuda TriangleExpansion
- How does the Bermuda Triangle race mode work?
- Does the Bermuda Triangle solo card apply to the race mode?
- Is the Kraken a location or a Tier I card in Bermuda Triangle setup, and does it get a player token?
- What do you do if you run out of player tokens in Bermuda Triangle?
- When the Kraken swaps places with another card, what happens to ships on the Kraken?
- How do Treasure Hunt cards that need a location work when the Kraken is in the setup?
- Where do the treasure map cards go in the Treasure Hunt setup?
- Which Maracaibo bonuses apply on the Bermuda Triangle expansion board?
- Can the Bermuda Triangle Tier I and Tier II cards be used without the Treasure Hunt module, and is the race module optional?
- Can you move backwards on the Treasure Hunt map, for example from a B card back to an A card?
- In Treasure Hunt, can you go from one A card to another A card, or from a B card to another B card?
- Are gray scrolls on residences, improvements and commander boards counted for the Bermuda Triangle treasure hunt?
- When a card gives treasure income at round end, is it taken from the treasure island or from the stock?
- Do treasure-value effects matter in the Treasure Hunt module?
- Can the Treasure Hunt module be played in solo mode?
- Can you use a black market tile given by a commander to complete a Treasure Hunt card that requires one?
- Can Commanders be used with the Treasure Hunt module, and how are ties broken?
- Does Viviana's ability to swap quest scores apply to Treasure Hunt D card requirements?
- Can the Kraken's stop obligation be ignored when it would take a ship backward or repeatedly?
- When a Bermuda Triangle ability moves your Explorer past a river, can it stop on a space that already has an Explorer?
- Does the cube placed on a bonus space of Treasure Trove Cove stay on the card, so each benefit is taken only once per game?
- Do you still get end-of-round income in Treasure Hunt mode when there are no rounds?
- When does end-of-round income from a gem income scroll get paid, and is it a gem or a pool gem?