Dwellings of Eldervale FAQ
216 questions players ask · Updated Nov 7, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup
- How many Monsters do you use in a 2-player game?
- Does a 2-player game use a dummy player?
- How many Realm tiles are used in a 2-player game?
- Which Elements and Adventure cards are used in a 2-player game?
- Is the Dungeon always part of the starting map?
- Do I have to randomize the Treasure token stacks every setup?
- Are Treasure tokens set up face up or face down?
- Are there enough Treasure tokens for every Realm?
- What does the resource icon printed on a Realm tile mean?
- Where do the Orbs go at setup, and does anyone start with one?
- Are there enough Orbs for a 5-player game?
- Do players start with Magic cards, and how many?
- Can you play with 6 players?
- What Victory Points does each player start with?
- What do the Wizard and Warrior cost to summon on the Starter cards?
- During the Peaceful Beginning do the normal placement rules still apply?
- When does the Peaceful Beginning end?
- Can players trade resources with each other?
- Do later printings or the Second Edition change the rules?
Placing Units and Realm Actions
- Can my first unit placement go into a Ruin?
- Does a Dwelling make a Realm occupied for First Placement or count as a Unit for adjacency?
- Can I place a unit in a Realm that holds another player's Dwelling?
- Can I place a unit if I cannot perform the Realm's action?
- Can I place on an Elemental Realm if my Treasure tray is full?
- In a Realm with two Treasure stacks, which stack do I take from?
- When can the Warrior use Aggression?
- How far can the Dragon fly?
- Can a Dragon attack from two Realms away or join a battle at range?
- Can the Wizard Teleport into an occupied Realm to start a battle?
- Do Teleport, Flight and Aggression still let the unit take the Realm's action?
- Does moving a unit (not placing it) give a Realm action, Monster Rush or battle?
- Can units of different players share a Realm, and can I place in a Realm with my own unit?
- What can I pay for the Mage Tower, and do the resources have to match?
- Can I pay Gold for the Fortress?
- Can my first Unit go into a Realm holding a Monster during the Peaceful Beginning?
- Can the Dungeon give two Adventure cards, and from the same Element?
- Can I burn a Doorway card in the Dungeon?
Regroup and Tableau Actions
- Can a Wizard, Dragon or Warrior use a Worker-icon action or a Dwell action?
- Can I Regroup when I have no Units in Eldervale?
- Do I have to place all my Units before I Regroup, and is there a round structure?
- During Regroup, do I pull back all Units first or act one at a time?
- Can I leave Units in Eldervale when I Regroup?
- Can Units returning from the Underworld use Tableau card actions?
- Do Units placed on Tableau cards stay there until my next Regroup?
- Can I use more than one action on my Starter card in a single Regroup?
- Can the Chaos Sorcerer or any effect use an opponent's Starter card?
- In what order are Workers summoned, and can Recruit skip the cheap ones?
- Can one Summon action summon more than one Unit?
- Can I slot a Treasure token on my Starter card?
Resources, Gold and Magic Cards
- How many Treasure tokens can I hold?
- Can Gold be spent in place of any resource?
- Can Gold replace a Sword to add a die in battle?
- Can I trade Gold or Magic cards directly for another resource?
- Can Magic cards be spent as wild resources?
- Does the Treasure Chest symbol include Gold and Magic cards?
- Is there a limit on how many resources I can hold?
- When do I have to discard down to 7 Magic cards?
- What happens when the Magic card deck runs out?
- How do Quests work: when do they complete and are they spent?
- Can I play a Quest that needs me to cast a spell after I have already cast it this turn?
- Can I play a spell that would have no effect?
- Who decides the order when two effects happen at the same time?
- Is information about resources and Magic cards public?
Dwellings
- What do I need to build a Dwelling?
- Can a Realm hold more than one Dwelling, or one per player?
- Can a Wizard, Dragon or Warrior be turned into a Dwelling?
- Can I build a Dwelling in a Realm that holds an opponent's Unit or a Monster?
- Can I build a Dwelling during the Peaceful Beginning?
- How many points does building a Dwelling score?
- Do I score when someone builds next to my Dwelling, or when a Realm or Bifrost Bridge is added beside it later?
- What happens when a Dwelling is built on a Realm with two Element symbols?
- Can Dwellings be attacked, removed, or start battles?
- If a card moves a Dwelling (such as Sky Castle), do I advance an Elemental track?
- What if I turn my last permanent Worker into a Dwelling using a temporary Unit and end with no Units?
Free Actions and Orbs
- How does discarding a Treasure token for resources work, and when can I do it?
- How does slotting a Treasure token work, and can slotted tokens be moved or discarded?
- Can I repeat a Free Action several times, and use them before, between or after actions?
- Can I keep an Orb and use it later?
- How does the Orb Reward Space action work?
- Can a slotted Orb be moved to another card later?
- Can I slot tokens or Orbs onto an opponent's Adventure card?
Adventure Cards and the Tableau
- Which Units can activate an Adventure card that shows a Worker icon?
- Do Units stay on Tableau cards after I use them?
- Is the Starter card part of my Tableau?
- What can an Aura be attached to, and can it be moved?
- Do Aura cards count as Adventure cards for end-game scoring?
- How does the Underwater Aura work on an opponent's card?
- How does the Chaotic Aura or Chaotic and Unstable Portal resolve?
- When do I get a Doorway's bonus resources?
- How do input Slots and Orbs work on a Tableau card?
- Can I slot any Treasure token in any Slot, and can I cash in a slotted token?
- How does River Routes work?
- How does Sky Castle work with Dwellings?
- What does the Lighthouse do?
- How does Ancient Grove score?
- Do slashes on slotted tokens count for vault-style cards like Boiling Cauldron?
- Can I reuse Entomb or fill it quickly?
- Where does a discarded or burned Adventure card go?
- Where can I gain Adventure cards besides the Dungeon?
Battle
- Does the Realm action happen before or after the battle?
- When several opponents or a Monster share the Realm, is it one battle or several?
- When the Peaceful Beginning ends, do Units already sharing a Realm fight?
- Which Units can join a battle, and from how far away?
- How do Dwellings add dice in a battle?
- What is the maximum number of dice I can roll in a battle?
- How do Swords add dice in battle?
- How are ties decided in battle?
- If I beat both a Monster and an opponent, do I get both rewards?
- When do I gain a Sword for a Unit in the Underworld?
- Do Units return to where they came from after a battle?
- What happens to the losers of a battle?
- When can a Tactics token be used, and what does it save?
- Can a Monster be left out of a battle in its Realm?
- What does Faerie Charm do, and can it stop a Monster Rush?
- How does Blood Rage work?
- Does the Ritual spell grant Swords for the Units it sends away?
- In what order do spells played during a battle resolve?
- Do I gain Glory on my first Regroup?
- When does the Peaceful Beginning end?
- Can a smaller force still win a battle?
- When does the Warrior's Momentum set a die, and whose die can it set?
- Can Lightning Bolt take me past the six-dice limit?
- How does Scorching Breath work when the target has nothing to lose?
- How does Drawn to the Light work in battle?
- Does Drawn to the Light give me the owner's Adventure cards?
- What does Liquid Form prevent?
- Can I use a spell to avoid a battle my placement would trigger?
- Does the Death Knight's Sword bonus apply only to the Warrior?
- Does Gift of the Fallen resolve once per Unit sent to the Underworld?
Monsters
- If a battle ends in a true tie that includes a Monster, does the Monster survive?
- How does the Chaos Beast's Diseased power affect Units that fight from adjacent Realms?
- When does a Monster Rush?
- Does the Monster Rush happen before or after the Realm action?
- If a Unit is placed next to several Monsters, which one Rushes?
- Do Monsters Rush into Ruins?
- Can a Monster win a battle, and what happens if it does?
- What do I get for defeating a Monster?
- How can I dominate a Monster?
- What is a Dominated Monster: a Monster or a Unit?
- Do a Monster's abilities still work when it is Dominated, and what does the chain symbol mean?
- How many dice does a Dominated Monster roll, and are they capped at six?
- If my Dominated Monster loses or dies, do I get a Sword?
- How is a Dominated Monster placed, and does it cost anything to summon?
- Is there a limit to how many Monsters I can dominate?
- When can I play Capture on a Monster?
- How does the Dread Crocodile's Erratic work?
- Does a Dominated Dread Crocodile still use Erratic?
- Does the Winged Serpent's Tame ability still work when it is Dominated?
- Can I avoid fighting a Winged Serpent that Rushes in?
- What does the Iron Golem stop?
- What does the Death Reaper's Fear stop?
- Who decides where Charging Earth moves?
- How does the Living Storm pull Units into battle?
- Does the Frost Giant's extra Sword count toward the Death Knight?
- How does the Volcanic Terror's Inferno work with Magic cards?
- Does Bringer of Justice limit what Monsters roll?
- What can Unstable Portal target?
- If a Monster returns to its Lair where my Unit stands, is there a battle?
- Can I dwell in a Realm that holds a Monster?
Elemental Power
- Who gets the Orb at the top of an Elemental track?
- What if I have no free Elemental power markers for a new Element?
- What happens when I gain power on a track I already topped?
- For a spell's Elemental Power requirement, do I count track spaces or the printed number?
- How far do I move when I dwell on a Realm with two sigils?
- How often does a Wall card pay out when an opponent gains Elemental power?
End of the Game
- Can I still use the Dungeon after the last Realm tile is drawn?
- What ends the game and who gets a last turn?
- How many Adventure cards can I score at the end of the game?
- How is each Dwelling or Adventure card valued at the end?
- Do Vaults score in addition to the three-card limit?
- Do unspent Orbs score at the end of the game?
- How do Prophecies score, and what is checked when?
- How is a tie decided, and what counts as a resource?
- Do Monster cards score in my Tableau at game end?
- Do Prophecies like Great Wall and City on a Hill count opponents' Dwellings?
Factions and Units
- Do the Atlanteans gain Glory on their first Regroup if one of the three Workers becomes a Dwelling?
- What can the Atlantean Wizard's Alchemy substitute?
- How does the Cult of the Night Queen's Worker sacrifice work?
- How does the Cleric of the Dawn's revival work, and can it loop?
- How does the Ratlings' Dragon take another Realm's action?
- Where can the Wardens of Evenmarch Wizard teleport?
- Where can the Pirates' Ship Captain Wizard be placed?
- Do the Elf Wizard's Wander or the Troll Warrior's Regeneration give a Realm action?
- Can Wandering Sage place a Unit in the same Realm two turns in a row?
- Can the Servants of the Eye Wizard use another faction's gate?
- If my controlled Unit from Drawn to the Light loses, do I still gain its Sword?
Mercenaries
Optional Realms
- Can the Mother of Dragons be Dominated or tie for a Trove token?
- If Faerie Charm cancels a battle the Mother of Dragons rushed into, does she return to her Den?
- When does the Mother of Dragons rush?
- Is the Oracle part of the base game, and what does it do?
- How do Trove tokens work?
- Where does the Dragon's Den tile go at setup?
- How is the Bifrost Bridge placed, and what are its limits?
- Does the Frost Giant rush and return to its lair?
2v2 and Other Variants
Solo Mode: Ghosts of Eldervale
- Do Ghosts follow the normal placement restrictions?
- Who makes choices for the Ghosts when the rules do not say, such as where a new Realm tile goes?
- Do the Ghosts move up the Elemental track when they gain an Adventure card?
- What do Ghost Units in the Underworld do?
- Do Ghost Dwellings add battle dice and do Ghosts build before battle?
- What do the Ghosts gain instead of resources?
- Do the Ghosts take a Treasure token when they place in an Elemental Realm?
- What if the Ghost cannot carry out its card's action?
- When does the Peaceful Beginning end in solo play?
- How do Doorways work for the Ghosts in solo play?
- Are the Ghosts affected by Monsters and Monster powers?
- Do the Ghosts join a Blood Rage battle?
- How does solo setup differ for the player and the Ghost?
- What do the dwelling pictures and red and black sections on the Ghost mat mean?
- Can I add the Ghosts to a 2-player game, or play them cooperatively?