Alchemists FAQ
134 questions players ask · Updated Nov 7, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup and Components
- During setup, is the Favor card you don't keep discarded face up or face down?
- In what order do you draw Ingredient and Favor cards at setup and when choosing turn order (Herbalist)?
- How many action cubes does each player get in a 2, 3 and 4 player game?
- Can you start the game holding two Favor cards?
- Can you play Alchemists without a phone or the app?
- Are the gamemaster tokens single-sided, and are the gamemaster's results public?
- Does every player need a phone, and does the app need internet?
- Does the app keep a record of guesses or results during a game?
- Which side of the player board do I use?
- What information in my laboratory is public and what is hidden?
Deduction and Alchemy
- Does the size of an alchemical's circles matter for hedging, theories and final scoring?
- Why are there only eight alchemicals?
- When two alchemicals match in sign for more than one color, which potion do they make?
- What makes two ingredients cancel to a neutral potion?
- After a neutral result, can I cross off other possibilities on my grid?
- What does a Correct Sign result tell me?
The Round and Actions
- In what order are actions placed and resolved?
- Can I decline an action I placed cubes on?
- Can I move a cube to another action after placing it or after the action is blocked?
- How many cubes does Sell Potion take, and can I sell in the first round?
- What can I do on Forage if the face-up ingredients are gone?
- How is play order set when one or more players are paralyzed?
- If every player is paralyzed, who is the starting player next round?
- Can my reputation drop below 1?
- Do reputation zone modifiers apply to every reputation loss and do they stack?
- What do the order spaces give, and can I pick any of them?
Experiments and Drinking
- If I drink poison on an Assistant's cube, which cube goes to the hospital?
- Can I suffer two negative potions of different colors in the same round?
- Do I suffer the negative effect when I drink a potion through the Custodian?
- Are ingredient cards used up when I mix a potion?
- Which tests on a student cost 1 gold?
- Can I take another Drink Yourself action after suffering a penalty?
Selling Potions
- Do I need gold to offer a guarantee when selling?
- What is the difference between the correct-sign and the neutral-allowed guarantee?
- Can I decline to sell after winning the discount bid or after offering a discount?
- Can I change my discount if another seller drops out?
- Can I bid a big discount just to block another seller?
- How do discount bids and selling order work?
- With three players, if only two want to sell, is there still bidding?
- Can I sell a second potion in the same round?
- Can two players sell the same potion type in one round?
- In a 2-player game, if the first seller fails the guarantee, can the second player sell?
- When do I choose the potion and guarantee for a sale?
- Do reputation zones change guarantee prices?
Publishing, Seals and Grants
- Can I look at the seals I already placed on theories?
- What is the difference between publishing and endorsing a theory?
- Can I put two seals on one theory or endorse my own theory?
- Can I endorse a theory using the same hedge color someone else placed?
- Does a published theory need a seal?
- Can I publish using an alchemical or ingredient that already has a theory?
- How many seals do I have and what are they worth?
- What does a hedge seal protect against, and can I hedge two colors?
- Does the circle size matter when I hedge a color?
- What do hedged seals do on a correct theory?
- Can I swap out my seal on a theory that turned out correct?
- When can I claim a grant?
- Who gets a grant if two players qualify when a conflict token is removed?
- Can I win several grants from one publication?
- Do I lose a grant if my theory is debunked later?
- Do I need gold to publish before a grant pays out?
Debunking
- Can I take a Debunk action when no theory has been published?
- What happens to the seals and tokens when a theory is debunked?
- Can I debunk my own theory?
- Can a correct theory be debunked?
- How does immediate publication after a debunk work?
- Can the immediate publication repeat the exact theory I just debunked?
- If I have two Publish cubes, what happens to the second after an immediate publication?
- If every theory spot is full and I debunk one theory, what can I immediately publish?
- Does a debunk that shows two conflicts earn more than 2 reputation?
- In a Master debunk, can one experiment create conflicts with ingredients other than the two I tested?
- In Master Debunking, do I choose a color to test?
- What if my debunk demonstrates nothing new?
- Do I lose reputation when a different color than my hedge is proven wrong?
- If one experiment disproves two theories, must I remove both?
- Can I debunk a theory I published earlier in the same turn?
- What if there are no conflict tokens left?
- Is the result of a debunk public, and are the ingredients shown?
- What does a Master debunk with a neutral potion prove?
- Can I debunk using evidence from other ingredients?
Favor Cards
- Can I use several Assistants to place more cubes than I own?
- When do I play the Barmaid, and what does she give?
- Does the Barmaid's reputation bonus count before or after the sale resolves?
- When do I play the Merchant, and do I still get 1 gold if I decline or fail?
- Can the Merchant let me sell a potion another player has already blocked?
- Are Favor cards reusable?
- With the Herbalist, which cards can I discard, and from where do I draw?
- Can the Herbalist discard ingredients I just drew with the same action?
- When do I play an Associate, and what if two players have one?
- Does the Custodian count as an action space, and is it limited like Drink Potion?
Artifacts
- Does the Printing Press make publishing free?
- Can Boots of Speed be used on the Custodian favor?
- Can Boots of Speed repeat an action whose cube I declined, or is already gone?
- Can Boots of Speed be used to sell potions?
- If Boots of Speed repeats an action with a negative result, do I suffer it again?
- Can I still use Boots of Speed after my Drink Potion cube went to the hospital?
- Can Boots of Speed repeat Exhibit Potion or give another Publish after an immediate publication?
- Does the player I spy on with the Periscope learn what I saw?
- How often can I use the Periscope, and on which actions?
- Does the Robe of Respect work in the final round or final scoring?
- When does the Robe of Respect add reputation?
- Does the Wisdom Idol score hedged theories?
- Can I refuse the Altar of Gold's effect by paying nothing, or buy it with exactly enough gold?
End of Round, Final Round and Scoring
- When does the artifact row get replaced?
- When does a conference happen and how does it work?
- Do tied players all gain the Top Alchemist reputation?
- Which unused cubes count toward Favor cards?
- How many adventurers can I see in advance?
- How many rounds are there?
- What happens at the end of the final round?
- How does exhibiting potions score?
- Do I need ingredients in hand to exhibit, and does an earlier brew block it?
- In what order do exhibition attempts resolve?
- How many cubes can I put on Exhibit Potion?
- How do seals score at the final reveal?
- Do reputation penalties apply during final scoring?
- Do my seals on theories others published score?
- Is there a 50 point cap?
- Are leftover ingredients worth anything?
Alchemists: The King's GolemExpansion
- Can I animate the Golem again after it is awake to take another approval token?
- Are Golem test results shown to other players?
- Is the result of a Golem animation shown to the others?
- Can the Periscope be used on a Golem test?
- What if book tokens run out?
- Do Shopkeeper and Discount apply to under-the-counter artifacts?
- Can two Royal Encyclopedia articles use the same four ingredients?
- Can I use the King's Golem module without the Royal Encyclopedia?
- Do I get the extra Royal Encyclopedia seals without the Encyclopedia, and can they be used on the main board?
- How many encyclopedia articles do I need for the Encyclopedia grant?
- Can I decline an approval token left on Test Golem?
- Can I submit a progress report in the final round?
- Which side of the Golem report tokens shows the player color?
- Are under-the-counter artifacts known from the start?
- Can a theory conflict with an encyclopedia article?
- Can the Replicator repeat a startup card at very low reputation?