Cartographers Heroes FAQ
139 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Components and Setup
How to Play
- Can a Gorgon Gaze destroy a space that already has terrain drawn on it?
- In multiplayer, who carries out the extra destroy effect when a Gorgon ambush is drawn?
- Can a chosen shape be rotated or flipped when I draw it?
- Are monster ambush cards reshuffled back into the ambush deck after they appear?
- When a drawn card has separated pieces, how far apart are they placed?
- On the Dragon ambush, when do you gain the 3 coins if the middle space is destroyed?
- Can a hero's terrain shape be drawn onto a space that already has terrain?
- Can Giant Troll Rampage destroy a space that holds a hero?
- Can a hero's attack pattern extend off the edge of the map?
Terrain Types
- When a Gorgon Gaze is drawn, which player picks the adjacent space it destroys?
- If a Gorgon Gaze overlaps a hero's attack pattern, when are the attacked spaces destroyed relative to the Gorgon's destroy effect?
- Does a hero's attack pattern fill its spaces, or stop other terrain being drawn there?
- What happens when a monster is drawn on a space marked by a hero's attack pattern?
- Can a hero's attack pattern be rotated or flipped?
- If a monster is drawn over a hero's attack pattern, is the whole monster destroyed?
- If no legal shape fits, what terrain goes on the replacement 1x1 square?
- What does choosing monster terrain do, and where is it drawn?
- Does adjacent mean only up, down, left and right, or do diagonals count?
- Does a hero terrain space count as a wild terrain type for scoring cards?
- Do hero spaces count as filled spaces?
- Do destroyed spaces count as filled spaces for scoring and for mountain coins?
- Can an ambush shape overlap a filled terrain space?
End of the Season
- Who chooses which empty space the Giant Troll Ravage destroys?
- Can the Giant Troll Ravage destroy a space that is already destroyed or filled?
- Does a destroyed space count as empty for the end-of-season penalty next to monsters?
- How is the Faunlost Thicket edict scored: the longest unbroken column of forest, or the biggest forest shape?
- Are coins reset at the end of each season, or does each season score them again?
- Does Giant Troll Ravage keep destroying spaces once it is surrounded by drawn terrain?
- If destroyed spaces split a monster such as the Dragon into pieces, is it still one monster for its effects?
Scoring Cards
- How many times can Traylo Monastery score within one village cluster?
- On Clawsgrave Peaks, does a mountain still score when farmland also touches it, and can several farms connect to one mountain?
- Does a mountain with no water next to it score on Clawsgrave Peaks?
- Does a destroyed monster space count as monster terrain for Banded Hills?
- Do monster spaces count as filled spaces when fulfilling scoring cards such as Dwarvenhold?
- Does a 2x4 or larger block of one terrain count as one cluster or several for Gnomish Colony?
- Does the Silos scoring card count the column's number or the number of columns?
- Does an empty ruins space with no landscape count as empty for Outer Enclave?
- How does Heart of the Forest differ from Treetower?
- How many reputation stars do Craylund and Banded Hills give?
Combining Games
- What can you mix between base Cartographers and Cartographers Heroes?
- Can you use the Heroes season cards with the base game, and which season set should you use when combining?
- If a Ruins card is revealed and a Hero is drawn next, must the Hero be placed on a ruin?
- Can ambush cards and scoring cards be mixed between the two games, and which cards must stay separate?
Solo Mode
Cartographers: Map Pack 1 – Nebblis: Plane of FlameExpansion
- Is the Volcano a terrain type?
- Can lava from a Volcano flow through a space destroyed by a hero?
- Can Cure Wounds be used to draw a lava or volcano shape while a Volcano card is showing?
- Are revealed Volcano cards removed from the game or shuffled back into the explore deck?
- Can Nebblis volcano and lava flow shapes be rotated or flipped?
- If a Volcano is revealed right after a Ruins card, does the ruin's effect still apply to it?
- What happens when a Lava Flow card has no legal placement?
- Do spaces destroyed by monsters or heroes count as lava flow next to a Volcano?
- How are the two 1x1 squares from Rain of Fire placed?
- Can a Volcano shape be drawn over monster spaces?
- Does the Subvert skill apply to a Volcano card?
- Can a Volcano shape be drawn over spaces that are already destroyed?
Cartographers: Map Pack 2 – Affril: Plane of KnowledgeExpansion
- On Affril, where are ambushes placed on the islands in solo mode?
- How does Crystalline Surveyor score on an empty Affril map?
- On Affril, do two filled stretches in one row count as a single complete row for Crystalline Surveyor?
- On Affril, do rows and columns combine across islands for scoring cards like Sleepy Valley?
- Do Affril islands each have their own columns for column scoring?
- On Affril, do the edges of each island count as map edges for scoring cards like Sentinel Woods?
- On Affril, can you draw terrain in spaces where island art intrudes into the square?
- On Affril, if a shape fits on no island, what do you do after connecting islands?
- On Affril, can a hero's attack pattern reach across to another island?
- If no ruins can be drawn on your connected islands, must you connect to a new island?
- If you cannot afford a required connection on Affril and cannot fit a shape, what do you gain?
- Are Stoneside Forest and Treetower usable with the Affril map?
- Can Great City score across multiple islands on Affril?
- Can you fill several connection dots in one turn by spending coins?
- Can you use a coin from a shape before you draw that shape?
Cartographers: Map Pack 3 – Undercity: Depths of SabekExpansion
- In Undercity, how is a monster placed when the spiral search reaches a space?
- In Undercity, do destroyed spaces count as part of the continuous path back to the gate?
- In Undercity, must every piece of a disconnected shape connect back to the gate, or is one connected piece enough?
- In Undercity, if a disconnected shape cannot have all its pieces connected to the gate, what is drawn instead?
- In Undercity, does an above-ground piece follow the same gate-connection rule as an underground piece?
- In Undercity, can a hero's attack pattern extend across the upper and lower city line?
- In Undercity, does the ground line act as a border for adjacency, scoring or monster effects?
- Can a shape be drawn across the Undercity ground line, even if its pieces connect to the gate?
- In Undercity, what happens if a Ruins shape cannot be drawn on a ruin and still connect to the gate?
- In Undercity, do monsters have to connect to the gate like other shapes?
- On Ancient Sepulchre, does a mountain score twice if it connects to two ruins, and can one ruins space help score several mountains?
- On The Pit scoring card, do filled rows or columns above ground count, and do a row and a column both score?
- In Undercity, can a shape connect to the gate through a mountain, and does the ground line break the continuous path?
- What rules change when playing the Undercity map's advanced side, and where is the gate drawn?
- How many points does Azema's Bones count as in solo scoring when played without Heroes?
Cartographers: Map Pack 5 – Kethra's Steppe: Redtooth & GoldbellyExpansion
- When an empty space lies in line with two lit beacons, is the penalty counted once or once per beacon?
- Do destroyed spaces form a cluster for Summit's Splendor?
- Does a mountain placed next to a lit beacon count as a separate mountain cluster for Summit's Splendor?
- For Summit's Splendor, does a cluster that is only partly inside a lit beacon's range count, and does splitting it count twice?
- Are the separate goblin shapes from Goblin Attack one cluster or several for scoring?
Cartographers: Map Pack 6 – Hornhelm: Wasteland MarketExpansion
- If a hero drawn next to a monster destroys that monster with its attack pattern, does the Bestiary still score?
- Does drawing terrain next to a destroyed monster space score the Bestiary?
- Does a Zombie Plague spread count for the Bestiary diamond when it draws a zombie next to a monster?
- Do item effects like the Machete trigger when monster spaces are drawn during an ambush?
- Can you use the Compass to ignore a ruin restriction and draw a 1x1 wildcard instead of a larger legal shape?
- Does an ambush on a ruin stop the Compass from counting that ruin at season end?
- Can you buy a merchant item in the middle of a season?
- For Spyglass, must every orthogonally adjacent space be empty or the map edge, or is one enough?
- On the Canoe Cart's second terrain placement for a Journal point, must the new shape touch the map edge?
- How does the Canoe Wagon (Canoe Cart) score journal points?
Cartographers: Skills Mini ExpansionExpansion
- Can skill cards be used when an ambush (monster) shape is drawn?
- Can Negotiate draw a 2x2 instead of a listed shape, and do you still earn the coin?
- In multiplayer, what does Acrobatics do to an ambush shape?
- If Concentrate lets you pick a shape with a coin again, do you earn the coin twice?
- Can each skill card be used only once per game, and can several players use the same skill?
- When during a season can you use a skill card, and how long does it last?
- When can you buy Acrobatics or Concentrate, before or after the draw?
- Do you change the solo scoring table when playing with the Skills expansion?
- When can the Diplomacy skill be activated?
- Can the extra square from the Search skill cover a ruin to meet a ruin requirement?
- If a ruin shape cannot fit, can Search or Negotiate enlarge the 1x1 wildcard drawn instead?
- Can Move Silently draw a shape past the edge of the map, or over wastelands, the Undercity gate or a volcano?
- Can Search extend a Stonespine Mountain into a 2x1 with another mountain, and does each mountain count as a filled space for coins?
- Do coins spent on a skill still count toward the maximum coins on the sheet?
- Is the coin cost of a skill card a permanent loss of coin points, and can you pay with a coin from an earlier season?
- Do skill card effects replace the normal shape drawn from the Explore card?
- Which terrain types can Cure Wounds draw?
- How many cards are in the Cartographers Skills Mini Expansion, and how is it set up?
- Can Move Silently be used to draw an ambush monster shape?
Cartographers: Skills Mini Expansion 2Expansion
- Can skill cards from the base set and the Heroes set be mixed in one game?
- In solo mode, when Summon changes an ambush shape, is the square added or removed before the shape is placed?
- Who plays the Summon skill against an ambush card: the map owner or the player drawing the monster?
- Can Sleight of Hand be used on a Hero card?
- When can Disguise be activated during the Draw Phase?
- Can Manipulate be used when an ambush card is revealed?
- How can Manipulate split a shape into pieces, and must each piece stay connected?
- Can Subvert be used on an ambush card in solo mode?
- Where can the extra square from the Summon skill be placed?
- Can Haggle draw both options when an explore card has one shape with two terrain types, and does it work on cards with more than two options?
- When Acrobatics and Summon both apply to one draw, what is the order, and do monster effects still apply?
- Does Disguise replace the normal shape draw, or is its 1x1 added to it?
- For Manipulate on a shape that must cover a ruins space, must both split parts cover ruins?
- Can Cartographers Skills Mini Expansion 2 be used without Cartographers Heroes?
- How does the Summon skill change the size of an ambush shape?