FAQ
17 answered questions14 official
Rules questions from the BoardGameGeek forum. Answers marked Official were confirmed by Horrible Guild or the designers.
Common mistakes
- Refill empty burners only at turn end; you cannot then place ingredients or drink more potions. Ruling · Rule
- Use ingredients saved in your Pool when they fit your current recipes; the Pool is not a way to withhold usable marbles. Ruling · Rule
- Drinking a completed potion keeps both its printed points and its contribution to Skill achievements. Ruling · Rule
- Prismatic Joy affects the ingredients currently in your Pool, rather than every marble you collect that turn. Ruling · Rule
- Achievements do not spend potions: one completed potion can contribute to both three of a kind and five different kinds. Ruling · Rule
- Finish the current round when the end triggers; do not add another full round if the last player triggered it. Ruling · Rule
Showing 17 of 17
Can I use potion powers before my regular pick, or keep playing after drawing replacement recipes? Official
Powers may be used before or after the regular pick. Once you replenish your recipes at turn end, you cannot place more ingredients or use more powers that turn.
Source: BGG thread
Must ingredients be placed into recipes immediately when I collect them? Official
No. You may hold them while taking other permitted actions. The obligation to use ingredients that fit applies when placing them and by turn end; holding ingredients does not itself prohibit drinking a potion first.
Source: BGG thread
May I keep a usable ingredient in my Pool instead of filling a matching recipe? Official
No. Ingredients in your Pool must be used when they can fill your current recipes. The Pool saves ingredients you cannot use, rather than letting you withhold a matching ingredient indefinitely.
Source: BGG thread
Does drinking a potion lose its points or its place in an achievement? Official
No. Both drunk and unused completed potions retain their printed points and still count for Skill achievements. There is no bonus for leaving them unused.
Source: BGG thread
Which ingredients does Prismatic Joy affect? Official
Only the ingredients in your Pool when you drink it. Move those into your recipes ignoring colour; you cannot refill the Pool and keep reusing the same activation. You may drink multiple different potions during one turn.
Source: BGG thread
Can potion powers collect a ninth marble that becomes accessible as earlier marbles are removed? Official
Yes. The publisher confirms this for powers taking adjacent ingredients or discarding selected ingredients from a track. This does not make the partly hidden ninth marble a legal starting regular pick.
Source: BGG thread
Can the same completed potion count for three of a kind and five different kinds?
Community answer, also explicit in the rulebook: yes. These are achievements, not spent sets. Each kind awards its matching token once, and the five-different achievement is awarded once overall.
Source: BGG thread
Do we play a whole extra round if the last player triggers the game end?
Community answer consistent with the rulebook's equal-turn condition: no. Finish the current round. If the final player in turn order triggers the end, their turn is already the last turn.
Source: BGG thread
[Fifth] Can I save a white ingredient in my Pool while a recipe still has an empty hole? Official
No. White ingredients must fill available recipe holes; they may be saved in the Pool only when none can be placed. You can still hold them temporarily while resolving other allowed actions on your turn.
Source: BGG thread
[Fifth] Does Dram of Poltergeist Sweat earn a Reward after stealing and exchanging an ingredient? Official
Yes. Take one ingredient from an opponent's Pool, exchange that ingredient with the Cauldron, and gain the usual one Reward token for the Exchange. A white ingredient in hand must still be placed if a current recipe can use it.
Source: BGG thread
[Fifth] Can I recolour one of two colliding white ingredients after taking the other, to create a new chain? Official
No. Decide their colours at the collision. If they count as the same colour, take both together, along with any connected matching ingredients. You cannot split an exploding pair afterward to invent a different collision.
Source: BGG thread
[Sixth] Can white ingredients or Prismatic Joy mix other ingredients into a green recipe layer? Official
No. A recipe layer containing Mandragora Leaves may contain only Mandragora Leaves. Green cannot join a layer already containing another kind either, and colour-changing powers cannot bypass this restriction.
Source: BGG thread
[Sixth] Can Stickiness or Feather Touch collect a mixed group of green and white ingredients? Official
The publisher answers no: treat Mandragora separately for these powers rather than merging it with white ingredients. Green ingredients explode only with other green ingredients.
Source: BGG thread
[Sixth] Does the ten-potion achievement replace the five-different achievement?
Community answer consistent with the rules: no. It is an additional achievement for five- and six-player games. The original matching and diverse achievements remain. The Collector's Edition example shows all three awards; an older expansion example omitted the diverse award in its caption.
Source: BGG thread
[Serum] Must its two discarded ingredients be neighbouring or come from adjacent tracks? Official
Choose two ingredients in one slide track. They need not be neighbours or match colours. Return them to the tank; this removal causes no explosions.
Source: BGG thread
[Glacial] Can I refill its storage later, and can opponents steal ingredients stored there? Official
Add up to two ingredients only when activating the potion. You may leave them there for the rest of the game and take them back on your turns, but cannot put new ingredients into emptied spaces without a new activation. Stored ingredients cannot be stolen.
Source: BGG thread
[Fortune] Which dispenser does Shuffling Fortune use with five or six players? Official
Use the current Pick dispenser for the whole effect: empty the chosen track, temporarily lift the Bell to return the shuffled ingredients to that dispenser, then take the two bottom ingredients from that track. Do not send them into the Discard dispenser for this power.
Source: BGG thread