The Manhattan Project: Energy Empire FAQ
101 questions players ask · Updated Nov 11, 2026 · Full rulebook
Game Components and Setup
- Is there a limit on how much energy, how many workers or how many dice a player can hold?
- What do I do when the pollution tokens run out during a game?
- Are all workers the same in Energy Empire, or are there scientist and engineer workers?
- Can I gain more than one green Solar-wind die in a game?
- Does the starting player get bonus money at setup?
- How do I set up neutral workers in a two-player game?
- Are all of the buildings used in every game?
- Does the bonus die from my Nation card stay with me all game?
- Can I own two identical structures or buildings?
A Work Turn
- Can I put energy alone on the main board, or use cards in my tableau without placing a worker?
- Which structures in my tableau can I activate on a Work turn, and is there a limit?
- Can I activate more than one structure on a single Work turn?
- Can I spend resources I gained from one card on another card in the same turn?
- Can I activate a structure if I did not place a worker in its region on this turn?
- Is there a limit to how many worker stacks can sit on one location?
- On a Work turn, can I place more than one worker on the main board?
- After a Generate turn, can I generate again if I have no energy and no legal placement?
- Can I repeat a Spend action several times in one activation?
- Do a structure's benefits carry over to later turns after I activate it?
- Can I activate the same structure again on a later Work turn?
- Can I activate Engineering Firm without buying a structure that turn?
- Do lower action spaces like Clean Up, Mine or Power Plant activate my structures, or only the top market space?
- When can I activate my Nation card?
A Generate Turn
- Do I remove a pollution token from the Global Impact track on a Generate turn even if I roll no pollution?
- Can I take a Generate turn, or claim an achievement, on the first turn of the game?
- Can I take two Generate turns in a row?
- Are the brown Petroleum dice I get from refining oil kept, or returned?
- Is refining oil mandatory on a Generate turn?
Your Environment
- What happens to pollution or nuclear contamination when my Environment has no free space?
- Must pollution fill my Environment left to right, or in a set column or row?
- Does an oil well on my player mat count as pollution for end-game scoring?
- Can an oil well be cleaned up and then drilled again later?
- Can an oil well produce oil again after it has been used?
- What are the oil drop icons on my Environment for?
- How many Clean-up actions does it take to remove a Nuclear Contamination token?
The Global Impact Track
- When a building or effect adds pollution, do I take it from the Global Impact track or from the supply?
- When a Global Impact card says to take pollution from the supply, does the supply include the Global Impact track?
- Which worker can I place on the Pandemic card, and when can I get it back?
- Where does the worker come from when Automation makes me discard a worker?
- Where does a worker go when Automation makes me discard it?
- Does Chemical Spill still add pollution if no row has two open spaces?
- When Imperialism gives each player a structure card, can its new owner use it right away?
- Is the oil price on the Global Impact track per barrel, or for three barrels?
- If my action removes the last pollution from a stack, does the new oil price apply to the rest of my turn?
- What does the Atomic Age Global Impact card do with Science?
- What happens to workers held on the Hostage Crisis card when the next Global Impact card is revealed?
- Does the Nuclear Fallout card turn my oil wells into nuclear pollution?
- Do Global Impact cards score points for a row of my Environment when they are turned over?
- Do structures I take from the Imperialism card score victory points?
- When does a Global Impact card take effect once its pollution stack is exhausted?
- Does Diplomatic Crisis count neutral workers in a two-player game?
- How much extra energy does Diplomatic Crisis add when several players have workers on the same location?
Locations and the United Nations
- Can I use a location that already has workers by stacking my worker on it?
- Does the Engineering Firm let me avoid the Market Crash extra $1?
- Can I use a structure on the same turn I buy it?
- Can I place more energy on a location than the action requires?
- Can I buy more than one structure when I place a worker on a market?
- Does the Embassy structure need a worker placed in the Government market to be active?
- Do I have to pay the cost for the energy die or oil well I take with the Energy Company card?
- How do I gain workers beyond my starting three?
- Can I drill for oil when no oil well tokens remain in the supply?
- Does the Energy Company market card's drill-an-oil-well effect put an oil well token on my board?
- Can I use resources lying on a location to pay that location's cost?
- Who gets the resources that a Global Impact card places on a location?
- In a two-player game, what if I have no dice or oil and cannot make energy to place a worker?
- If Pandemic removed my worker from my UN building, can I use that UN building again on my turn?
- How is the United Nations leader bonus split if players tie for the furthest spot at game end?
Achievements
- Does a worker left on the Pandemic card until game end still count toward achievements?
- When can I claim an achievement, and what do I need on my player mat to claim one?
- Can I hold more than five achievements, and can one be worth more than 5 points?
- Can the same resource count toward two different achievements?
- Does energy from my final Generate roll count toward the Energy Reserves achievement?
Ending the Game and Scoring
- Do the dice on my player mat score points at game end, and does the type matter?
- Does the game end as soon as the last pollution token leaves the Global Impact track?
- Can I generate on my final turn?
- If I have no workers left and must generate on my final turn, can I still place workers or activate structures?
- Where does pollution come from on the final turns, or once the track is empty?
- Are the end-game clean-column bonuses scored separately, and which column is worth the most?
- Are the victory points on my structures scored when I buy them, or at the end of the game?
- Can I score my structures during the game instead of waiting for the end?
Solo Energy Empire
The Manhattan Project: Energy Empire – Cold WarExpansion
- What is the cardboard $3 finance token in the Cold War box for?
- Can Espionage be used on an opponent's structure, and how is the owner compensated?
- Can Espionage be used to benefit from an opponent's Generate-turn structure?
- With Espionage, can I activate more than one opponent structure?
- In 2-player Clash of Nations with the Rival, do I limit the energy dice supply, and can I keep Proxy War or Espionage?
- In 2-player Clash of Nations with the Rival, how many megastructures are used, and where do the extra worker and finance token go?
- When the Rival places a worker on a spot that holds resources or pollution from a Global Impact card, what happens to those tokens?
- Does the Rival count as another player for Diplomatic Crisis?
- Does Brazil's starting pollution come from the Global Impact track or the supply?
- In the solo Clash of Nations setup, does the rival start with six workers and place two per turn?
- Does the solo rival remove pollution from the Global Impact track when its workers sit on a location?
- Do face-down Cold War cards count toward leader bonuses at the end of the game?
- Does the Market Crash $1 surcharge apply to megastructures?
- When a Developer, Retooled Factory or Government Contractor card copies a market card, do I gain that card's pollution?
- Can I place a worker on the Doomsday Clock after placing on another main-board space this turn?
- After placing a worker on the Doomsday Clock, can I activate structures of any colour?
- Do the VP symbols on the Doomsday Clock score points during play?
- Do Megastructures count as Structures for effects like Metropolis?