Kingdom Death: Monster
323 questions players ask about Kingdom Death: Monster. Pick one for the answer. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-11-04.
Introduction, Setup and General Rules
- How does the game scale from 1 to 6 players, and how many survivors does each player control?
- What does it mean to archive a card, and is it gone for good?
- Are effects that trigger from the same event resolved simultaneously?
- Do tokens of the same kind stack, and what if I run out of them?
- Can I add an expansion's disorders, fighting arts and innovations without playing the monster, and do I redraw cards that don't fit?
- Which rules version should I use, and are 1.5 expansions compatible with the 1.6 core?
- Can I play Campaigns of Death with only the core game?
- What is the Rule of Death, and how do I settle rules conflicts?
- How do the 5-6 player variant and the other rules variants work?
Survivors
- Do survivor miniatures have to match the gear the survivor is wearing?
- Does a survivor gain weapon proficiency on the hunt where they first pick a weapon type?
- What happens when a survivor changes weapon type, and does a weapon master keep the mastery?
- Are Age milestone results applied immediately, and are they kept if Hunt XP drops?
- What is a survivor's starting survival, and what is the survival limit?
- Does insanity reset after brain damage, and is there a maximum?
- How does the Immortal disorder convert damage?
- Can a disorder be avoided or redrawn, and where does the card go?
- What if a survivor must gain a fourth fighting art?
Gear
- Can a settlement own more than one Hours Ring?
- Does the Hours Ring stop a survivor gaining beneficial tokens, bleeding tokens or the priority target token?
- Is non-unique gear limited to the copies printed in the box?
- How do arrows work with a bow: do they inherit the bow's properties, and can several be fired?
- What does the second copy of a paired weapon contribute?
- Which weapons can be paired, for example with Ambidextrous?
- Can a survivor wear more than one piece of armor on a hit location?
- Do special rules of other equipped weapons apply when I attack with a different weapon?
- Can a survivor use a shield together with a two-handed weapon?
- How long does Block last, and what does it cost to use?
Severe Injuries and Brain Trauma
- Does a severe injury knock a survivor down?
- How many severe injury rolls does a hit cause: once per hit or once per point of damage?
- What if I roll a severe injury I've already recorded the maximum number of times?
- Which severe injuries last, and what heals after the showdown?
- How do the blind severe injuries stack, and when does a survivor retire?
- Can a survivor with a dismembered arm still use paired weapons?
- Are head injuries and brain trauma the same table?
- Can an effect that removes a permanent injury remove a disorder?
- Does an injury that forbids waist gear unequip what is already worn?
- How does brain damage work with insanity, and when do I roll on the Brain Trauma table?
Monsters and Monster AI
- Does Priority Target override a monster's normal targeting, and how long does it last?
- What base sizes do the monster miniatures use, and how many spaces do they occupy?
- Do monster damage tokens apply to a Grab or add extra hits?
- Can the Lion's Cunning grab a knocked-down survivor, and can others dash away first?
- If the closest threat is beyond the monster's movement, does it still target and move toward them?
- When does a monster turn to face a survivor?
- When a monster draws two AI cards in one turn, how are they resolved?
- How does a survivor get gobbled up by the Screaming Antelope, and how do they get out?
- How does the White Lion's Bloodthirsty mood count damage?
Resources
- Are resources limited to the cards in the resource deck?
- Can resources found on the hunt or in a showdown be used then, and can stored resources be brought along?
- Can gear be recycled or archived as resources to craft other gear?
- When and how can survivors trade resources?
- When resources are spent or archived, are they gone?
- Do I have to consume a consumable resource right away, or can it be stored?
- Can I gain more Founding Stones after throwing the starting ones, and is there a maximum?
- What does Fresh Acanthus heal?
- Do nemesis monsters give resource rewards?
- Can a monster resource with matching keywords fill a crafting requirement like Perfect Bone?
Terrain
- What does Obstacle terrain block?
- How does hiding in Tall Grass work: does it stop a survivor being a threat or being targeted?
- Do monsters path around terrain, and does terrain hurt them?
- Which wins when monster setup and a terrain card give different placement rules?
- What if a rule places more terrain tiles than the box contains?
- How are 'X spaces away' distances counted for terrain, range and reach?
- Must a survivor be on a terrain tile to activate or gather from it?
- What happens if a Debris or Scrap Pile terrain roll is a 7?
- Can survivors start the showdown on terrain, such as a Giant Stone Face or Tall Grass?
- Who decides where terrain goes at showdown setup?
Hunt Phase
- What happens when the survivors and the monster both ambush in the same hunt space?
- When survivors ambush a monster, does the monster still go first?
- What happens when survivors reach the monster's space on the hunt board, and is an event rolled there?
- How does Overwhelming Darkness work on the hunt board: can it be skipped, and what if survivors enter it again?
- Can hunt events cause severe injuries or brain trauma?
- How do I roll a hunt event, and how does a lantern on the tens die count?
- When can Run Away be used, and does it count as a Defeat?
- How do Herb and Mineral Gathering fit into the hunt, and can they trigger twice?
- How does Herb Gathering work with several d10?
- Can I hunt with fewer than four survivors, and does a replacement join if one dies?
Hunt Events
- If a hunt event makes me roll again, does the same survivor stay the event revealer?
- When a hunt event says 'all survivors roll', is it one roll per survivor?
- Do Understanding and Courage bonuses apply to every hunt event roll?
- How many basic hunt event cards are in the hunt deck, and do added cards replace them?
- What happens to armor points when gear is lost mid-hunt?
- Can a survivor hold two Lovelorn Rocks, and what space does it use?
- Can random hit location damage on the hunt strike the same location twice?
Showdown: Survival Actions
- Can a survivor surge in the middle of another survivor's attack?
- Can one survival action interrupt another that is still resolving?
- Can a survivor spend survival (dodge, dash, surge) during their own attack?
- Can a survivor dash or spend survival once their attack and its reactions are finished?
- Can survival be used to dodge roars, grabs, reflex damage or other effects that are not attacks?
- Does a dodge cancel the whole attack or just one hit?
- How often can each survival action be used per round, and does survival refresh?
- Can several survivors use survival in the same survival window, and can survival help another survivor's attack?
- If a survivor is knocked down mid-attack, can Encourage stand them up so the attack continues?
Showdown: Attacks, Hit Locations and Wounds
- Can survivors farm Understanding by repeatedly hitting the White Lion's Strange Hand location?
- Can a survivor choose to attack with fewer speed dice than their weapon gives?
- Can speed be reduced below 1 by penalties?
- When several hits land at once, how do wounds, critical wounds and the order of hit locations work?
- What counts as a perfect hit, and does it depend on Luck or critical wounds?
- Can a survivor attack with two single-handed weapons, or two different weapons, in one activation?
- How do paired weapons work when both are the same weapon?
- How many hit location cards are drawn per attack, and how does a hit become a wound?
- If a hit location shows Failure or Reflex, is the wound still rolled?
Showdown: Monster Turn and Targeting
- Why would 'Random Survivor' ever result in 'No Target'?
- What happens when the White Lion has Ground Fighting in play and my attack draws a trap or a reaction?
- If the AI card has no move and the priority target is outside the impact zone, what does the attack hit?
- Can a White Lion's Priority Target be removed by hiding in Tall Grass, by knockdown, or by passing it to another survivor?
- Does the Butcher's Kick as its last AI card cause an endless loop?
- When exactly does the monster controller's survivor gain +1 insanity?
- Are Special (S) cards shuffled into a monster's AI deck?
- Does a priority target token redirect a trap or a reaction that targets the attacker?
- Does Head Hunter add a second hit, and can that attack be dodged?
Showdown: Knockdown, Collision and Movement
- If a survivor is knocked down again while already knocked down, when do they stand?
- If a knocked-back survivor lands on another survivor, is the second one knocked down too?
- When a Grab would collide the survivor with a pillar, does the survivor move along the monster's path?
- When does a knocked-down monster stand up?
- Is a knocked-down survivor still knocked back by a monster's roar or collision?
- When does a knocked-down survivor stand back up?
- Does a monster moving past a survivor knock them back or just knock them down?
- If the monster moves or the attacker is knocked back out of range mid-attack, what happens to the remaining hit locations?
- When Trip Formation knocks the monster back, do the tripping survivors take collision?
Showdown: Ending the Showdown
- If the whole party dies in a showdown, are the resources they carried returned to the settlement?
- What if the monster and the last survivor die from the same damage?
- If a monster is wounded while its last AI card is still in play, or during a surge, does it die?
- Can survivors harvest terrain after the monster dies in a showdown?
- What happens to a survivor's resources and gear when they die during a showdown?
- Do survivors who run away from a showdown keep resources or gain endeavors?
- Do bleeding tokens stay on survivors after the showdown?
- What happens if a survivor is sacrificed to Lantern Frenzy during the Butcher showdown?
Settlement Phase
- Does crafting gear cost an endeavor?
- How long do lingering effects of a settlement event last, and is the event deck reshuffled?
- Can the same settlement event happen twice in one lantern year?
- Do innovation bonuses for departing survivors apply every hunt, and does a survival-limit bonus give extra survival?
- How does the Innovation deck work?
- How many innovations can a settlement make in one settlement phase?
- Who can spend endeavors, and can a survivor endeavor repeatedly?
- Must I send four survivors on the hunt, and can I swap a survivor out?
- Does a Nemesis Encounter replace the hunt, and do survivors still depart normally?
Story Events
- When a die result has a colored section whose condition I meet, do I also apply the base result?
- Can a settlement of one gender, or a same-sex pair, use Intimacy to gain population?
- Which survivor dies when an event costs population?
- When an expansion adds an event to the timeline, does it replace an existing one?
- Do one-time departing bonuses from a story event (like the first grave) last for the whole campaign?
Finale
Kingdom Death: Monster – Black Knight ExpansionExpansion
Kingdom Death: Monster – Dragon King ExpansionExpansion
Kingdom Death: Monster – Dung Beetle Knight ExpansionExpansion
Kingdom Death: Monster – Flower Knight ExpansionExpansion
Kingdom Death: Monster – Gambler's ChestExpansion
- Does Rawhide Headband's reveal give Foresight and leave a Duration AI card face up?
- How do starting philosophies work: can two survivors share one, and may I reshuffle between draws?
- How does Collective Cognition work, and what does Mentorship need?
- How do I mix the Gambler's Chest settlement events with the core game?
- How many perfect basic resources should I keep after the Gambler's Chest upgrade?
- Can I play the Gambler's Chest without the core game, and how do promo patterns and strain cards fit?
- How do Gambler's Chest cards integrate with the core and expansions?
- If the Scout dies but other hunting survivors return, is the dead survivors' gear still returned?
Kingdom Death: Monster – Gorm ExpansionExpansion
- Does the Gorm expansion replace the White Lion, and how do I get rid of Gorm Climate?
- How does Gorment armor's Guard work with the Knuckle Shield and Dried Acanthus?
- Can Gormchymist be used in the same phase as a normal innovation, and what resources does it take?
- Where does Gorm stop near the board edge, and does Lure Paroxysm affect survivors already knocked down?