Wyrmspan FAQ
120 questions players ask · Updated Nov 7, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup and Overview
- Do I need player markers (colored cubes) to take an action, or only coins?
- Is Wyrmspan played simultaneously or one player at a time?
- Do players alternate turns, or can one player take several turns in a row?
- Can I take the same action on two turns in a row?
- Do I have to move my adventurer when I take the entice or excavate action?
- Can I play my starting hand face up?
- Do I place cave cards on the first space of each cave at setup?
- What happens when the dragon or cave deck runs out?
- Can I play a dragon or cave card straight from the display?
Excavate
- Do I pay an excavate action's coin and egg cost before the cave card's benefit?
- Which eggs can I pay for an excavate or second explore: only from the cave in question or anywhere on my mat?
- If I play or excavate a cave card for free, do I still pay the egg cost for the 3rd and 4th column?
- Can I take the excavate action when every space on my mat is already excavated?
- Can I excavate when I have no cave cards in my hand?
- What does the arrow-coin space in the last column of each cave do?
- Does the color of a cave card matter for which cave it goes into?
- What does cave card 63 mean by "pay 2 dragons" before gaining a cave card from the display?
- How do "up to 3x" cave card abilities work?
- Can a cave card's "activate the once per turn ability on any dragon" work on a dragon without that ability?
Entice and Dragon Abilities
- Do I pay the Entice coin when a card effect lets me play a dragon for free or at a discount?
- If a dragon or cave is played for free, do the optional payments inside its when-played ability still apply?
- Does playing a dragon for free ignore its cave preference or the need for an excavated space?
- How do Dragon 146 and Dragon 65 let me play a dragon?
- When I entice a dragon onto a space with a cave card, is the cave card discarded?
- Are card abilities optional, and what if an ability gives something to the other players?
- Can I interrupt one card ability with another before it finishes?
- In what order do I take several benefits that a card gives at once?
- Can what I gain from one use of a repeatable ability pay for the next use?
- How many resources do I gain from a tucked dragon's cost with Shrieking Amphiptere, Hawkish Firevern or similar "any resource" tuck abilities?
- When a card says cache or tuck on "any dragon", can I choose any dragon on my mat?
- Does Dappled Glade Spirit count as an explore dragon for the explore objective?
- Does Augural Fey Dragon count as a dragon with a "when activated" ability for an end-of-round goal?
- Can Marshy Webbed Dragon trigger an end-of-cave ability before my explorer has reached it?
- Does a when-played ability that says "activate an Explore ability" give me a full explore?
- Does Ringtail Serpent's meat bonus work if the explorer has few or no other dragons in the Crimson Cavern?
- If another power tucks a card under Chittering Dragonette, do I get its reward right away?
- What counts as a "full" cave for a dragon that scores when its cave is full?
- When one dragon activates another dragon's once-per-round ability, which cave do the effects apply to?
Covering and Swapping Dragons
- When two dragons swap places, do their eggs, cached resources and tucked cards move with them?
- Does cave card 66 swap the positions of two dragons or move them anywhere?
- When a new dragon is played on top of another (Guild of Highlands, etc.), what happens to the covered dragon's tucked cards, cached resources and eggs?
- When a card covers a dragon, does the covered dragon count as a tucked card?
- If I play a hatchling on top of a dragon, do its tuck abilities trigger?
Hatchlings
- Does a hatchling's third-item bonus trigger again with later tucks, caches or moves?
- Do a hatchling's tuck or cache bonuses trigger when the card or resource comes from another source or in groups?
- If caching on a hatchling gives me a resource that I can cache again, are these separate events?
- If a hatchling gets its third resource outside an explore action, do I gain the bonus immediately?
- Can a round-end "lay an egg on each dragon" ability place eggs on a hatchling?
Explore
- What does exploring cost, and how often can I explore a cave in a round?
- Do the coins and eggs on my explore costs stay there between rounds?
- What happens when my explorer reaches a space with no dragon?
- If I play a dragon mid-explore onto the next space, does my explorer keep going past it?
- Does an if-activated dragon I played ahead of my explorer during the same explore activate when the explorer reaches it?
- Does Fanged Broadwyrm's tuck benefit trigger when I tuck from an action elsewhere?
- How does the Crimson Cavern end-of-row cache bonus work?
- When an if-activated or once-per-round power benefits other players, do they get it even if I decline?
Caching, Tucking and Eggs
- Do cached resources come from my personal supply or the general supply?
- Can I pay costs with resources cached on my dragons?
- Can I spend two resources in place of one I do not have?
- Can I cache several resources on one dragon in a single turn?
- If a cave makes me cache two resources on one dragon, does a "when caching" bonus trigger twice?
- When a card says "tuck a dragon card here", can I tuck several cards at once?
- If a card lets me tuck two dragon cards from the deck, can both go under one dragon?
- When a card says to draw dragon cards and tuck some, what happens to the cards I do not tuck?
- Does "lay an egg on any adjacent dragon" put one egg on one dragon?
- Where do eggs come from when I gain or lay one, and where can they go?
- Can I move eggs between dragons or nest spaces after placing them?
- How do the 2x and 5x multiplier tokens work?
Dragon Guild
- When a Dragon Guild benefit gives me a card, do I draw it or gain it?
- How many markers can I place on the Dragon Guild, and can I keep advancing after my fourth?
- Can one player take both spaces of the same Dragon Guild bonus?
- Do the printed starting caves count as cave cards for the Guild of Highlands bonus?
- Does the Rainforest Guild ignore-resource-costs benefit also waive coin and egg costs?
- How does the Rainforest Guild VP bonus count resources in a cave?
Turn End and Limits
- When is the limit of 9 coins, resources and cards checked, and what counts toward it?
- Are eggs limited to 9 like coins, resources and cards?
- How many coins do I get each round and do unspent coins carry over?
- Do I have to pass when I run out of coins, and can I use coins I gain after passing?
- When are the face-up dragon and cave cards refilled?
- Where do the coins and eggs I pay for Excavate, Entice and Explore go?
Round End and Objectives
- In what order does the end of a round happen?
- Do eggs and coins I paid as costs count toward round-end goals, such as eggs on my mat?
- Does a round-end dragon ability trigger when a card is tucked under that dragon by another effect?
- Do tucked cards count as dragons for round goals and dragon-counting abilities?
- How do round objectives rank players when someone has none or players tie?
- Do the caves printed on my player mat count toward goals that count cave cards?
- Does a resource on my mat count for a "cached resources" round goal?
- On the Dragon Guild end-of-round tile, how is advancement counted?
Game End and Scoring
- How are leftover coins and items scored at game end?
- Do eggs on my mat nest spaces score at game end?
- Does a "lowest marker" end-game objective still score when markers tie for last?
- If a hatchling scores per cached milk, do I also get the normal point for each milk?
- Can I use an end-of-game pay-for-VP ability, like Playful Hornwyrm or Dragon 87, more than once?
- What is the most Dragon 87 can score?
- For card 129's playful dragon points, must dragons be adjacent to card 129 itself?
- Does the Great Golden Lung Dragon count dragons of any size in its cave?
- For a dragon scoring per adjacent SHY dragon, is each direction limited to one dragon?
- Can an end-of-game scoring ability that asks me to pay cards use cards from my hand?
- How are markers on the Dragon Guild counted in end-game scoring?
Solo Automa
- In solo play, does the Automa gain the opponent share of a card benefit?
- Can the Automa score more of an objective than a player could reach?
- How does the Automa place its marker on the Dragon Guild, and does it skip full lines?
- What happens with the Automa's guild token when it is not placed or lands on a brown space?
- When does the Automa stop taking turns after I pass?
- Does the Automa get a reward for having more than the player to my left?
- Is the display refilled before the Automa takes its cards?
Wyrmspan: Dragon AcademyExpansion
- How many points does a fledgling drawn for Gambler's Guild end-game scoring score?
- Can the Guild of Magicians "switch 2 dragons" option swap dragons in different caves, and is it mandatory?
- On cave card 84, can the two abilities include ones my explorer would not normally reach, and must they differ?
- When do I pay the tithe for the King's Guild?
- Is training a fledgling considered an ability?
- Do a fledgling's abilities count for goals and end-game scoring before it is trained?
- Can cave card 77 train the same fledgling twice?
- Should the Dragon Academy replacement cards permanently replace the originals even in base-game-only play?
- Does a covered dragon count for "have played at least 2 other Aggressive dragons" on Quarrelsome Firevern?
- With the Academy income board, do I still get the base income at the start of rounds 2 to 4?
- Does the reward under a Dragon Academy training token give points right away?
- Does Machiavelli's Dragon allow 2 tucks per Shy dragon or 2 total?
- Can Eastern Lupine Serpent activate one dragon's once-per-round ability twice?
- After the trained Northwestern Auric Dragon pays a coin in round 4, can I spend it?