Sub Terra FAQ
114 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup
- Where in the cave tile stack is the exit tile placed during setup?
- How many hazard cards are in the deck for a normal four-caver game?
- How many hazard cards do you use with seven cavers?
- In a two-player game, do you play with two cavers or four?
- How do you set up the cave tiles when you play with an expansion?
- What are the extra coloured start and exit tiles for?
How to Play
- Can an unconscious caver heal themselves or take a turn to get back up?
- Are unconscious cavers removed from the game?
- Does the starting caver marker pass to an unconscious caver, or to one who has left the game?
- Do the horror and hazard phases happen after each caver's turn or once per round?
- With two or more cavers per player, who acts first and can the order change during the game?
Action Phase
- How many action points does the Diver's dive cost, and what happens to the Diver afterwards?
- Can a Diver heal or take actions while submerged, or exert on the turn she surfaces?
- Must the water tile a Diver dives into or surfaces onto be flooded?
- Do you choose the direction of a Reveal or Explore before drawing the cave tile?
- Can a Reveal or Explore place a new tile anywhere on the map?
- Do you pick your second action before seeing the result of your first?
- Can you Dig and move onto the same tile in one turn?
- If a Place Rope or Hide action fails, can you spend the same action points on something else?
- Can you exert to get a third action and spend it on Heal, or to pay for a two-point action?
- When placing a rope by exerting, do you roll twice?
- Do unspent action points carry over to later turns?
- Can a Medic use the Heal action on himself?
- How far can the Medic move with a Sprint action?
- Can a Run action take a caver onto a swim, squeeze or other tile that needs its own action?
- Can Run or Sprint be used to explore onto an unexplored tile?
- Can Run move a caver across a ledge or slide tile?
- How often can the Geologist use Intuitive, and does it work when exploring as well as revealing?
- Can the Leader's granted action be combined with Exert, and how often can she grant it?
- Does the Climber's Rig action need a die roll?
- If a caver is unconscious on their turn, are the horror and hazard phases skipped too?
- If a caver is revived before or during another caver's turn, can they act that round?
- How many action points does a move cost when moving into a flooded or squeeze tile?
- If I exert to gain 1 health with Heal and then fail the skill check, do I lose the health I was trying to gain or a health I already had?
Hazard Phase
- What does a Tremor hazard do to cavers?
- Does a Tremor still affect a Diver who is submerged?
- Does the hazard deck get reshuffled once the Out of Time card is revealed?
- What happens to a caver who fails an Out of Time skill check?
- When does the Out of Time roll happen after the card is revealed?
- Can you heal repeatedly to build up health before the Out of Time checks?
- How long does an active gas hazard last, and when does it cost health?
- What do the x2 hazard cards do?
- Does a cave-in hit a tile that already has rubble?
- Does a caver swimming in an already flooded tile take flood damage?
- Does flood water ever drain away?
- Does the Leader's +1 to dice rolls apply to cave-in rolls in the hazard phase?
- Can a Medic revive a Bodyguard lying on a gas tile while the gas is still active?
- Does a Bodyguard protect the other cavers on his tile from gas, even if he falls unconscious from the same draw?
- Are horrors affected by cave-ins?
End Phase
Cave Tiles
- If I explore and draw a horror tile, is the caver on it immediately knocked unconscious?
- Do ledge and slide tiles need a rope to cross, and which way do they face when drawn?
- Can a caver place a rope on a ledge or slide tile from an adjacent tile?
- Does a caver on rough terrain have to stop there, and can they run through it?
- Are cavers on the exit tile affected by tremors or the Out of Time check?
- Can you still take actions on the exit tile, such as blowing a hole in its wall?
- Must a new cave tile connect all its openings to existing tiles?
- When must a drawn cave tile be discarded instead of placed?
- If Explore reveals a squeeze tile, can the exploring caver move onto it without paying extra?
- Does a rope stay in play after it is placed?
Explosives Tokens
- Can the Engineer's explosives open a wall to reveal or explore a brand-new tile?
- When the Engineer blasts a wall next to an empty space, must the new tile have a matching opening, and can one explosive open a wall shared by two laid tiles?
- Can explosives break a squeeze tile's wall so the Squeeze action is no longer needed?
- Can the Engineer's explosives open a wall on the exit tile or on a squeeze tile?
Horrors
- Can the Exterminator despoil more horror tiles than the number of tokens he has?
- What does a Horror hazard card do when horrors are already in the cave?
- Does a horror spawned by a Horror hazard card move in that same hazard phase?
- Can a horror spawn onto a horror tile that already holds a horror?
- Can two horrors occupy the same tile?
- When two horror tiles are equally close to the closest victim, which one gets the new horror?
- What happens when a Horror hazard card is drawn and there is no horror tile in play?
- Does a caver share a tile with a horror and lose all health when a Horror card spawns a horror there?
- Does hiding protect a caver if a horror moves onto their tile?
- When does a horror leave the cave?
- When is a horror removed for having no caver within seven steps?
- Does a hidden caver count as the closest victim when horrors move or spawn?
- When two cavers are equally close to a horror, which one is the victim?
- When several shortest paths exist, who picks the tile a horror moves onto, and who decides the order horrors move?
- Is the Scout immune to horrors, including when a horror moves onto her tile?
- If the Scout is the only conscious caver within seven steps, does a horror spawn or move toward her?
- Do horrors chase only conscious cavers?
- Can a caver move past a horror without being knocked out?
- Do cave-in tiles block horror movement or change the distance to cavers?
- Can the Bodyguard repel a horror across a wall, or only on an adjacent connected tile?
- How does the expert (2x) Horror hazard card resolve?
General
- Can expansion characters be used in the base game?
- Can you play the Sub Terra expansions together, and mixed with the base game?
- Can the Geologist's reserve tile power be used on other cavers' turns?
- Can the Geologist keep the Exit tile in reserve and be the only player who can play it?
- How does the Scout's tile redraw work, and where do her discarded tiles go?
- Is there a limit on horrors, rope tokens and explosive tokens?
- Where are the full character abilities explained?
Sub Terra: InvestigationExpansion
- If a Doom card comes right before the Out of Time card, do cavers roll twice?
- How does the Body Armor item work, and is it healed back?
- In Sub Terra: Investigation, can none of the new item tiles end up in the cave?
- Does a wetsuit stop an Agent losing health from a Flood?
- In Sub Terra: Investigation, does the expansion add a new win condition?
- In Sub Terra: Investigation, does the Agent keep the three items chosen at setup, and where do the others go?
- In Sub Terra: Investigation, does the Spare Battery pass an Out of Time skill check?
- Can one caver collect all the item cards in a game with the Investigation expansion?
- How are the Investigation Doom cards added to the hazard deck?
- Must the Agent be part of the team when playing with the Investigation expansion?
- How many explosive tokens are there, and does the Investigation Explosive Charge item add any?
- What happens if a second Doom card is drawn right after a Doom card?
- Can a caver use a Transfer action to move an item between two other cavers on the same tile?
Sub Terra: ExtractionExpansion
- Do leapers count as horrors, so they cannot enter the Sanctuary tile?
- Do leapers move on both the Horror Phase and when a Horror card is drawn?
- Can the Mercenary's Survey reveal tiles two spaces ahead?
- How do horrors move when every caver is on the Sanctuary tile?
- Can one caver carry more than one biosample, and do the penalties stack?
- Can a biosample be left behind, and what happens if its carrier falls unconscious?
- Can the Leaper cards end up missing from the Extraction hazard deck?