Dungeon Petz FAQ
110 questions players ask · Updated Nov 11, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup and the Central Board
- What does each player start the game with?
- Which side of the Central Board do you use in a 4-player game?
- Why does a 2-player game turn up fewer cages, add-ons and artifacts?
- Can neutral imps stand on the small dummy squares, and do they block anything there?
- Does food left on the Central Board carry over to the next round?
- In what order is the pet corral refilled each round?
- Which cage is removed when cages are left over at the start of a round?
- How do the neutral imps move in a 2- or 3-player game?
- In a 2- or 3-player game, what happens when a neutral imp buys an aged pet from the upper row?
- Must you discard the older pets in the upper half before moving new pets up, even if there is room?
- Do pets that move from the lower row to the upper row at setup age only one step?
- Is there a limit on how many artifacts a player can store?
Phase 2 – Shopping
- Can a player go without buying a pet in the first round?
- Can a second group enter an action space that already holds a group?
- Can you buy more than one pet in a round?
- Can you leave one imp behind when you send a group to town?
- Can you replace an existing cage add-on with a new one, and can the old one move to another cage?
- Can you send a group to an action space and then skip its action?
- Can you send a group to an action space you cannot use, just to block an opponent?
- Do injured imps stay in the hospital until a group visits the Hospital space?
- Do the manure tokens and the pet move to the new cage when you replace a cage?
- How much gold does it cost to buy a pet?
- How does an imp left on the platform stay available across rounds, and what does using one pay?
- In what order do groups go to town when players have groups of different sizes?
- When do you take an action: immediately after placing your group, or after everyone has placed?
- When is the imp-inviting space blocked in 2- and 3-player games, and is the last invited imp useful?
Phase 3 – Need Cards
- Can you rearrange pets into different cages during Phase 3?
- Which need cards stay in your hand between rounds?
- What does a Potion replace, and does the replaced need still count in exhibitions and sales?
- Is a Potion discarded after it is used to meet a need, and do you discard a need card too?
- Can I keep an unused Potion for a later round, and does it count toward my hand?
- Must you play the double-symbol side of advanced need cards, and can a two-need card count as both needs?
- Is the Crystal Ball used before or after placing pets in cages?
- What do the coloured need symbols at the bottom of pet tokens mean?
- When do you reshuffle a need card deck?
- Why are need cards placed face down in Phase 3 instead of face up?
Phase 4 – Showing Off
- Does the Whip of Obedience let you enter an exhibition if your score is negative?
- When evaluating needs, does Magic come before Anger?
- Are pets discarded after they take part in an exhibition?
- Can a player with no pets gain judge or Whip of Obedience points in an exhibition?
- Can imps cover magic needs that exceed a cage's antimagic?
- Can several imps stand in the same gap between two cages to satisfy play needs?
- Can you choose not to feed a pet even when you have the food?
- Does the Employee of the Month artifact let one imp satisfy two play needs?
- If two play needs are assigned but only one imp plays with the pet, what happens?
- Can suffering tokens or mutations be removed from a pet once it has them?
- Do you have to meet the needs of pets you assigned in round one, when there is no exhibition?
- Do need cards you could not meet still count toward exhibition scoring?
- When you show a pet in an exhibition, do you score need cards played in earlier rounds?
- Do you lose reputation when a pet disappears through mutation?
- Does a pet with 3 or more Disease needs get sick if its cage has no poop?
- Does a pet with a lot of poop but no Disease need cards get sick?
- Does the judge's bonus count before the zero-or-less check for entering an exhibition?
- How are exhibition points split when two players tie for the same place?
- Is 10 the maximum exhibition score, so that anything above 10 ties?
- Must you resolve each pet's needs one pet at a time, or can you go need by need across all pets?
- When a cage or add-on meets a need, do you still play the need card for it?
- When pets are lost or die from unmet needs in Phase 4, do they still score in the exhibition?
Phase 5 – Business
- Can a buyer purchase more than one pet from you in the same round, or can you sell two pets to one customer?
- Can you sell two pets from the platform in one round if you have two imps there?
- Can more than one player get the three-times platform bonus in the same round?
- Can you sell a pet without any imp on the platform, and what multiplier applies?
- Can you use the black market twice in the last round?
- Can you sell a pet to a customer if the sale would give zero or negative reputation?
- Can gold from a group sent to make gold pay the mutation cost in the same sale?
- In the last round, can gold from one pet sale pay the mutation cost of the second pet sold?
- Do colour-coded poop symbols on customer cards score once per colour?
- Do customers who want poop count the manure in the cage, or only the poop need cards played?
- Do you get gold from a pet's coin icons, and when can a pet be sold?
- Must unused imps clean poop before they can earn gold?
- Is the cage that held an imp sent to the platform still empty for cleaning poop, and can that imp clean or earn gold?
- Does an imp on the platform action space count as being on the platform for the three-times bonus this round?
Phase 6 – Aging
- Do owned pets keep growing every round, and what happens at the top of the aging dial?
- Does an age-2 pet grow by one step or two at the end of the round?
- How long do meat and vegetables last before they rot?
- What goes into the meat stand when an unbought pet is sent to the farm?
- When does the exhibition track reset to zero?
End of the Game
Artifacts, Appendix and Variants
- Can an imp that already has a job in a round also do a second job, such as cleaning poop?
- When can the Long-Handled Shovel be used, and can more than one imp use it in a round?
- Can you discard and redraw Crystal Ball cards all at once, or one at a time?
- Can you use the Crystal Ball and Employee of the Month artifacts every round?
- Does a book artifact give its extra card once, or every round?
- Does the food token on the Magic Box count in an end-game exhibition?
- How does Imp Armor work when the pet in the cage still escapes?
- What happens when a colour runs out of cards from both the deck and the discard pile?
- How do Bob the Blob's colour and diet choices work each round?
Dungeon Petz: Bonus PetsExpansion
- Can Skelly make poop and get sick like other pets?
- Can Skelly's Potion stand in for a poop or disease need?
- Can you meet a rainbow need on Yummy with a Potion card?
- How do Yummy's rainbow needs work: which card do you lay face down, and when is it returned?
- Does Skelly have to be sold with a Potion?
- Does Skelly get an extra suffering token when assigned a hunger need and given no food?
Dungeon Petz: Dark AlleysExpansion
- Can Employee of the Month make a facility work twice, paying its cost twice?
- Can a withdrawn group go shopping again in the same turn?
- Can you change a group's size whenever you want in Dark Alleys?
- Can you ignore the new Dark Alleys pet rules?
- Can you withdraw a waiting group and send another group in the same turn?
- Can you withdraw only part of a waiting group in Dark Alleys?
- Does the Soulful-Eyed Lemur's need-matching work with adjacent pets?
- Can the bodyguard ever be alone on an action space?
- Does withdrawing a group in Dark Alleys use up your turn?
- How often can a Dark Alleys facility be used?
- In Phase 5, does using a facility cost an unused imp?
- In the Dark Alleys Phase 5 job order, can you make gold with imps before spending it on another job in the same phase?
- Where do the neutral imps start in a 2-player game with Dark Alleys?