Valeria: Card Kingdoms FAQ
161 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Game Components
Game Setup
- Do alternate-art Peasant and Knight cards change setup, or the cost of Citizens with the same name?
- How many Monster, Citizen and Domain stacks does a standard setup use?
- How do you choose the five Monster stacks at setup?
- Must the five Monster stacks each come from a different area?
- How many Domains are dealt in a 2-4 player game, and how are Monster stacks ordered?
- Can you use the 5-player Monsters in a 4-player game?
- Do you remove one Citizen card from each stack in a smaller game?
- Can you start with a Herald and a Coxswain or Margrave together?
- Can players look through the Monster stacks before choosing which one to fight?
Icons
- Does a Monster count its own icons when its reward scales with matching cards?
- When a Wild icon gives several resources, can you mix types?
- Who chooses which card is banished?
- In solo play, how do you handle a Banish effect that targets a Monster?
- Can the arrow-icon resource exchange be used more than once per Citizen activation?
Game Flow
- What is the turn sequence, and which side of a Citizen's power does each player use?
- Can you choose the order in which your own Citizens activate during the Harvest?
- When players share an activation number, or several players own Thieves, who resolves first?
- Must you use a Citizen's power when it activates?
- When you roll doubles, how many times does each matching Citizen activate?
- With a roll such as 3 and 5, do the dice and their sum resolve separately?
- When a Domain changes a die, do all players use the changed number?
- If the roll activates none of your Citizens, do you take a resource from the Bank?
- Can you spend resources gained during the Harvest to activate another Citizen?
- Does 'take from the Bank' mean gaining the resource from the supply?
- What does the Herald starter give when no Citizen matches the roll, or when the roll is doubles?
- How do Event cards work with the Exhausted deck?
- In what order do Event cards triggered by the same roll resolve?
- What happens when an effect makes you pay more resources than you have?
Ending the Game
- Do Monster and Domain stacks get Exhausted cards, or only Citizen stacks?
- Which stacks count toward the exhaustion end, and when does a 2-player game end?
- If a card is returned to an exhausted stack, does the stack stop counting as exhausted?
- Does a stack holding an Event card count as exhausted for game end?
- Does the game end the moment an end-game condition is met?
- How is a tie broken, and does the victory pile count as one card?
Actions
- Can you take the same action twice in one turn?
- When a card gives you a bonus action to slay a Monster, do you still pay the Monster's cost?
- Can Magic alone pay for a Citizen, a Domain or a Monster?
- Do you need the Citizen role icons shown on a Domain in your tableau to build it, and do Domain icons help build another?
- Can the same Citizens meet the requirements for several Domains?
- Can you defeat more than one Monster of the same type in one turn?
Card Anatomy
- Does Reese the Firebrand score points for starter cards?
- Do different resource types combine for a Duke's per-resource Victory Point bonus?
- Do Duke scoring icons also count the icons on your Domains?
- Does a Duke that scores per icon count each icon, or each card?
- Does Mico score a Boss Monster both as a Monster and for his own bonus?
- Does a Thief steal exactly three resources, and can it mix Gold and Magic?
- If I own two Thieves and roll a 7, can each Thief steal from a different opponent?
- If a Thief finds no opponent with the resource it wants, do you take it from the Bank instead?
- Can a conversion power, such as one gold into two magic, be used more than once per activation?
- Can you attack a Boss Monster before the other Monsters in its stack, given its 'ignore all others' text?
- Does owning one Citizen trigger the '+' cost on another Citizen with the same printed cost?
- What is the printed cost of the 4-value Citizens in the second edition?
Card Clarifications
- Do you pay for a Citizen you gain from a Monster reward, a Domain or another card effect?
- When a card lets you gain a Citizen costing up to a number, is the duplicate '+' surcharge added?
- Does a Domain you receive as a reward need its Citizen icons?
- Does Blasko Woods' Magic bonus apply when you gain a Domain for free?
- Does a Citizen flipped by the Assassin keep its type and ability?
- Does Forgotten Sorrows give bonus Magic for Citizens gained as rewards, not only when you recruit?
- Does the Tiefkummer-Felsen Domain give Magic once, or for every Citizen gained?
- Can Cutthroat's Truce take Magic when the chosen player has too little Gold?
- If a Domain gives +1 Magic during the Harvest, do you get one per Magic gained, or just one?
- What does the lowest line of the Cloudriders Camp give?
- Does a Blacksmith produce Gold when you have no Citizens with the helmet icon?
- What is the Warlord's reward when you are active, and when you are not?
- Does a Butcher count its own worker icon, and do several Butchers stack?
- How does The Desert Orchid domain work?
- How does the Foxgrove Palisade domain work, and can it change more than one die per roll?
- How does Gargan's Embrace score?
- When Orb of Urhr is in play, does an opponent give you a Magic token at the end of each of your turns?
- Can the Dragoon gain Magic without slaying a Monster?
- Does Gnoll Bonewitch's Citizen swap require paying for the new Citizen?
- Can the Gnoll Pack Lord reward be both 1 Gold per Gnoll slain and a free Citizen?
- Does a Titan Monster slain for Hrothgar the Conqueror score both the monster bonus and the Titan bonus?
- How does Harbor 1 take a Monster from an opponent?
- Can Castle 3 satisfy a reward to take a Citizen with a starting cost of 4 or less?
- When can you change a die with Castle 2's plus or minus one, and can it reach a face that does not exist?
- How can you tell whether a Domain's power is one-time or ongoing?
- Does a Domain that says 'your harvest phase' also pay out on other players' rolls?
- Can you use a Domain's power more than once in a turn?
Variants
- In the Mixed Citizens variant, is a Citizen's cost based on its name or its number?
- When does the solo game end?
- In solo play, is a Monster stack exhausted once its Citizen and Domain cards are gone?
- How does the solo Dark Lord score at game end?
- Can a solo player win by slaying all the Monsters?
- In solo play, does the second Harvest use new dice, and which side of the Citizens does it use?
- What does the Resting token do in a 5-player game, and does the First Player token move?
Valeria: Card Kingdoms – Crimson SeasExpansion
- How many Monster Event cards go into the Crimson Seas setup, and are they separate from regular Events?
- How do Monster Event cards activate and get defeated in Crimson Seas?
- Do Tomes score victory points at game end?
- Do Crimson Seas Citizens and Monsters work with the Darksworn expansion?
- Does the Coxswain activate twice when doubles are rolled and no Citizen matches?
- What does the Pirate Blockade Monster Event stop you from gaining?
- Are Map tokens limited to the number in the Crimson Seas box?
- If you are not using the Crimson Seas map board, can you use Citizens or Monsters whose rewards include a Map?
- With the base game, must the Citizens with Map rewards be chosen in a set number?
- How does the Noble Dray score resources?
- Do Noble role icons count toward Duke scoring, and can scoring reuse the same resources?
- For the Soul Hunter Monster, is the visible Noble the reward, and does the Leviathan count toward the per-Monster Victory Point reward?
- When you take a Domain, Tome or Good from a Crimson Seas reward slot, do you replace it right away, and how do the row items shift?
- Which Crimson Seas tokens do you use in a 2-player game?
- What does the Margrave give when activated on your own turn?
Valeria: Card Kingdoms – DarkswornExpansion
- Does Darksworn work as a solo game, and how is it played?
- Can the Explorer be used in place of the Herald in a competitive game?
- When does the Explorer activate, and does it replace the free resource?
- Can Darksworn be combined with other Valeria: Card Kingdoms expansions?
- Is Darksworn compatible with Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria?
- How many Exhausted cards does Darksworn use, and are they needed?
- In the Forgotten Temple, do you fight the final task twice?
- In the Darksworn Monster Phase, do the dice sum activate Monster rows and the book?
- Can a Wild-to-Wild blessing be used more than once?
- Does a Shade Monster that matches a rolled number use its ability instead of attacking its column?
- Are all four Malinok Monsters Shade Monsters, even though three lack the Shade icon?
- When refilling the Monster row and a Malinok appears, do you banish monsters until none is left, or banish once?
- How are Sea Drakes, Goblin Pirates and Harpies scaled when defeated?
- In Book 2, when are Eyebats placed, what happens when none are left, and do slain bats leave the game?
- Can an Eyebat be placed on a Starter card, and do Eyebat attacks continue after Book 2?
- When setting up Book 3, are the Shade Monsters shuffled in before or after the first Monster row is dealt?
- Do the Book 3 chapter bonuses of +1 Strength to Monsters stack across chapters?
- How do infection tokens affect Citizens in Book 4 of Darksworn?
- Does Blight or Goud's 'lose up to 2' effect let you pay with Magic instead of Strength or Gold?
- Do resource tokens placed on a Monster add to its defeat cost or its reward?
- What does an Event or Monster Event with the lightning bolt icon do, and who resolves it?
- Is a Citizen captured by a Monster attack the same as one that is banished?
- How do I tell which Darksworn book a card belongs to?
- Must Ward Towers cost exactly 9 Magic, 9 Strength and 9 Gold?
- What happens after a Ward Tower is built, and why does it show four role icons?
- Can a Relic be used more than once per turn, and can two different Relics cover your two actions?
- Can the Lantern relic chain extra actions through a Radiant token, or recharge another player's Radiant token?
- For the Treant Chest relic, when you exchange 3 of one resource for 5, can you take a different resource type?
- When a Monster reward is a Citizen, does that Citizen go to your tableau or back to the village stacks?
- In Books 4 and 5, do the banish and flip effects touch Citizens in your own tableau?
- Does the Monster Phase finish before you flip the next Task card?
Valeria: Card Kingdoms – Expansion Pack #01: King's GuardExpansion
- If a Monster returned to a stack holding an Event is slain again, does the Event trigger again?
- When Recruit the King's Guard is revealed as an Event, how many King's Guard cards go into play?
- Are King's Guard Event cards shuffled face down with the Exhausted cards?
- How does the Two Bandits of Pyth event resolve when doubles are rolled?
Valeria: Card Kingdoms – Expansion Pack #02: Undead SamuraiExpansion
- Is the Undead Samurai Lord's slot still exhausted, and what happens when the Lord is slain?
- What does the Undead Samurai Rider's flip effect do to the Citizen it flips?
- When the Undead Samurai Lord Event is revealed, is it a Monster to defeat or is it put into play?
- Does the Undead Samurai Lord's slot count as an exhausted stack for game end?
- Can the Undead Samurai Event be placed over an Agent card?
- What do Undead Samurai do once placed on a stack?
- Can Undead Samurai and King's Guard be used together?
Valeria: Card Kingdoms – Expansion Pack #03: AgentsExpansion
- Can the Huntress agent take a Monster from a player who has only one Monster?
- Can Magic substitute for other resources when paying the cost printed in an Agent's power?
- Can the Abbot take a Knight that has both Holy and Soldier icons?
- Can an Agent's banish effect remove an opponent's card?
- When Town Crier recruits a Citizen, do you still pay its Gold cost?
- Can you hire an Agent you cannot afford, just to keep it away from an opponent?
- Do the Bishop, Green Witch and Huntress agents cost anything to use?
Valeria: Card Kingdoms – Flames & FrostExpansion
- Can you mix Strength and Gold to pay for a Citizen with the New Shilina Tower?
- Can the Snow Queen let you take a face-up Domain whose Citizen requirements you do not meet?
- Who banishes a Monster when the Wandering Flame Domain is bought?
- Can Bogatyr spend one wild resource to gain 4 Strength on another player's turn?
- Does the Castles of the Seven Suns Domain stop opponents from stealing from you?
- Where do Wardens go in the Monster stacks?
- Can you flip a Starter Knight or Starter Peasant when a card tells you to flip a Citizen?
- Do flipped Domains count for the Miner and other cards that reference Domains?
- Does Flames & Frost end the game immediately when its end condition is triggered?