The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game – Revised Core Set FAQ
341 questions players ask · Updated Nov 10, 2026 · Full rulebook
Key Concepts
- Does direct damage ignore an enemy's defense or shield value?
- Does the Defense keyword stop other card effects from adding progress?
- When several effects resolve at the same time, who decides the order?
- Can damage assigned among characters go beyond a character's remaining hit points?
- Can a shadow effect make a hero discard a Permanent attachment?
- Can a defeated hero return from the discard pile to hand or deck?
- Can Forest Snare be attached to an enemy that has not engaged yet, and how long does it stay?
- Do traps like Forest Snare stop an enemy from engaging or moving?
- Can characters from different players combine to attack an enemy with Ithilien Pit attached?
- Does putting a card into play, rather than playing it, require a resource match?
- Can a hero's action or attachment still be used while the hero is exhausted?
- Can the same action be used more than once in a round?
- Does using an action on a card exhaust that card?
- Can a card effect target or affect another player's heroes, allies or enemies?
- Can a guarded objective be claimed after its guardian leaves play?
- Does a guardian attached to a guarded objective count toward the staging threat?
- Does a card added to the staging area trigger its when-revealed effect or Hide test?
- What does 'immune to player card effects' stop?
- Does Thalin's damage kill an enemy before its Surge triggers?
- Can direct damage be dealt to an enemy in the staging area?
- Does Archery still deal damage to an enemy in the staging area, or one engaged with another player?
- Can an effect that discards an attachment you control remove an encounter attachment such as Caught in a Web?
- If a When Revealed effect is cancelled, do Doomed and Surge still apply?
- Is there a limit on how many Mount attachments one hero can have?
- Can Reforged be attached to any attachment, or only to items?
- How many Restricted attachments can one character carry?
- When can event cards be played?
- Can you play a 0-cost card if no hero you control matches its sphere?
- Does a card that refers to characters also include heroes?
- Does an attachment's sphere limit which heroes it can attach to?
- When a card says to shuffle a card into the encounter deck, is the discard pile shuffled too?
- Does 'and' or 'then' in card text decide whether the second part still happens?
- Do cards in the victory display get shuffled back into the encounter deck?
- Can you choose yourself when a card says to choose a player?
- Can players discuss the cards in their hands during the game?
- Do characters exhausted for a Hide test ready afterward, and can they defend or attack that round?
- What happens to a defeated hero's sphere cards still in hand or deck?
- How often can Tactics Éowyn's action be used, and can she be readied more than once?
Game Setup
- How many cards must a deck have, and are the starter decks an exception?
- How do I build the encounter deck for a scenario?
- Can you shuffle the starter decks together into one player deck?
- How many heroes does each player start with?
- Does Surge trigger when a card is revealed during setup?
- When a quest has you reveal cards into the staging area during setup, are treacheries resolved?
- Can A Test of Will cancel a when-revealed effect drawn during setup?
Resource and Planning Phases
- When can allies and attachments be played, and does passing end that?
- Does Enchanted Stream stop you from drawing cards in the resource phase?
- Can a neutral card be paid for with resources from any mix of spheres?
- Can you discard one of your allies to make room for a second copy of a unique ally such as Kili or Fili?
Phase 3: Quest
- Can a location in the staging area be explored by progress placed on it?
- Does a quest need the staging area cleared or engaged enemies defeated to complete?
- Does the quest advance right away once it has enough progress, even partway through the phase?
- Where does quest progress go when there is an active location, and where when there is none?
- Does leftover quest progress carry over to the next quest card?
- Is quest resolution still carried out when no characters commit, or when a scenario skips staging?
- Does the staging step include quest resolution?
- Does a committed character still count toward the quest after it is readied or exhausted?
- Can an exhausted character commit to the quest?
- If a committed character becomes Sacked, does its willpower still count?
- In a two-handed solo game, is willpower added across both players' heroes?
- Can you ready a character during the staging step?
- Does Thalin's questing damage hit enemies that are added to staging during the quest?
- What does removing a character from the quest do?
- When an encounter card says 'you', such as Obsidian Arrows, who does it affect?
- If a quest stage's forced interrupt triggers when progress is placed, does it still happen after quest success is determined?
Phase 4: Travel
- Can you travel to Norbury Tombs when no enemy is in the encounter discard pile?
- If a location's travel effect reveals a treachery, what happens to the treachery?
- Can you travel to a new location if the quest failed?
- Can you kill an enemy with passive engagement before it engages you when it enters the staging area?
- What is a Travel action, and how many can you take in the travel phase?
- What must you discard to travel to Necromancer's Pass, and can you travel with fewer than two cards?
- Must you travel to East Bight when other locations are in the staging area?
- When travelling to Bucklebury Ferry, does every player make the Hide test?
Phase 5: EncounterExpansion
- In Dark of Mirkwood, when Obsidian Arrows is revealed, who takes the 2 damage?
- Does an engaged enemy return to the staging area at the end of the round?
- Does Forest Spider's engagement ability, and its +1 attack, apply every round?
- Can a player engage an enemy that is already engaged with another player?
- Can you optionally engage an enemy and then Quick Strike it before it attacks?
- Do an enemy's when-engaged effects still happen if you engage it voluntarily?
- Do enemies engage a specific character?
- Can Roheryn's response make the attached hero attack the newly engaged enemy first?
- How do engagement checks work for enemies in the staging area?
- During optional engagement, can you choose no enemy?
- If Driven by Shadow is revealed with no other card in the staging area, does its surge still reveal another card?
- In a solo game, which enemies engage during the engagement checks?
Phase 6: CombatExpansion
- Can you attack an enemy in the staging area?
- When are shadow cards dealt, and what happens to one on an enemy that cannot attack?
- Which text on a shadow card applies when it is flipped?
- If a shadow card is discarded after it is revealed, does its effect still apply, and can Gandalf's Staff discard it then?
- When do Wolves of Mordor shuffle back if their attack destroys a hero?
- Can several characters defend against one enemy attack?
- Do characters exhaust when they attack?
- Do characters exhaust when they defend?
- How many times can a player attack the same enemy in one combat phase?
- If an enemy returns to the staging area mid-attack, does its second attack still happen?
- Can an enemy attack more than once in a round?
- Does an enemy's additional attack get its own shadow card?
- What is an immediate attack, and does it get a shadow card?
- Does an immediate attack require the enemy to be engaged with the player it attacks?
- Does Angmar Captain's forced effect trigger again when its extra attack also destroys an ally?
- If a shadow effect removes the declared defender, or the defender leaves play, is the attack still defended?
- When does a Warg return to the staging area?
- Does Swift Strike count as an attack for responses like Legolas's?
- Can Swift Strike be played when another player's character is declared as a defender?
- Does Legolas's attachment response trigger when the attached hero attacks alongside other characters?
- How many action windows are there in the combat phase?
- In what order do enemy attacks and player attacks resolve?
- Do enemies still attack when all your characters are exhausted, and where does undefended damage go?
- In solo play, who is the defending player when a shadow effect makes the defending player discard an attachment?
- Does an enemy revealed by Tower Gate get its shadow card right away?
- Can Sneak Attack bring an ally in to defend during the combat phase?
- Can Straight Shot discard an enemy after Intimidation reduces its defense to 0?
- Does Protect the Innocent take a damage token from shadow damage dealt directly to the defending hero?
- Does an enemy's defense get used up by earlier attacks in the same phase?
- Can Beorn return to your deck if he dies while defending?
- Can a hero attack with a weapon that is exhausted?
- Can Ranged characters from different players attack different enemies during the Ranged support step?
- Does Collapsed Mine raise threat by all the damage it deals?
- Can Stand and Fight add an ally to an attack that has already been declared?
- How does Forth Eorlingas interact with staging enemies?
- Can Feint cancel archery damage?
- Does Grimbeorn the Old's response make a normal attack?
- If a defending Gondorian Spearman's defender damage kills a 1-hit-point Hill Troll, does the Troll still attack?
Refresh and Concluding the Game
Additional RulesExpansion
- Can Quick Strike or Hands Upon the Bow be used against an enemy that is immune to player card effects?
- Can Dunhere or Great Yew Bow target an enemy that is immune to player card effects?
- Can ranged or sentinel characters still attack or defend against an enemy that is immune to player card effects?
- When a card says you must either do X or do Y, can you choose the option you cannot fully complete?
- Do you shuffle a deck after searching it for a card?
- Can revised cards be mixed with original printings, and can original-edition packs be used with the revised core set?
- Are the rules of the revised core set different from the original core set?
- Can Wandering Took's threat-transfer action be used in a true solo game?
- Is Elrond's Counsel an Action or a Response?
- Can Westfold Lancer be discarded before the quest ends so its response triggers with Lothiriel?
- Which quests can use the treasure cards?
- If Ungoliant's Spawn is killed before the finale, does it count toward the objective?
Scenario OverviewExpansion
- What does Easy mode change in a scenario?
- Does an enemy in the encounter discard pile stop a quest stage from being completed?
- Can Bilbo defend against Gollum's attacks from the riddle area?
- In solo Flies and Spiders, what happens to the staging area when you advance from stage 2 to stage 3?
- When Flies and Spiders splits into two staging areas in a multiplayer game, do the cards stay where they are?
- Can Narvi's Belt give Bilbo a resource icon other than the four standard ones?
- After a failed quest, can Bilbo defend against Gollum's attack?
- When Roast 'Em or Boil 'Em searches and shuffles the encounter deck, does that include cards already discarded?
- What happens to Troll Key or Troll Purse if no Troll is in play to attach to?
- Must you take the quest action on a location you just finished, such as Spider Den?
- With Bill Ferny, can you search the discard pile or encounter deck for an out-of-play Ringwraith?
- Is East Gate immune to effects like Lorien Guide or Northern Tracker?
- Does Brake of Thorns' forced damage resolve during Mount Doom setup?
- Is Na'asyah included in the A Storm on Cobas Haven setup?
- When Corsar Pursuit reaches 10 progress, is the game won at once even with enemies still engaged?
- How does the Dire keyword change threat rules in a quest?
Deckbuilding
Campaign ModeExpansion
- What does the revised core set campaign add compared with the original core set?
- Do I need to rebuy the original cycle to get the revised Angmar campaign cards?
- Are the revised core boon and burden cards available as print-and-play?
- Does Mendor start in play during campaign setup?
- Does Mendor's response trigger when a location is completed?
- Can Mendor be returned to a player's hand?
- What happens to campaign progress if you lose a scenario?
- When are boons and burdens shuffled into player decks during campaign setup?
- Do cards sent to the victory display return for later scenarios of a campaign?
- Which version of Frodo must be used in the Fellowship saga campaign?
- Can you play the revised core scenarios in any order?
- Does surge on a burden card reveal an extra encounter card?
- Does a side quest stay in play after its progress reaches zero?
- Can you add a second deck partway through a campaign?
- How does the Appointed by Fate boon work in a campaign?
- What carries over from one scenario to the next in a normal campaign?
- Do you still use the core quest cards when playing campaign mode with the campaign cards?
- In Expert Campaign Mode, do heroes keep the damage from a failed attempt when a scenario is replayed?
- In Expert Campaign Mode, what happens if the damage carried over would kill a hero between scenarios?
- Can a hero who died or was discarded during a campaign be used again later?
- Is there a difference between the permanent +1 threat penalty and the permanent +1 starting threat penalty?
- Must a fallen hero be replaced between scenarios of a campaign?
- Can an effect remove a permanent boon such as Valour from a hero?
- Does Thalion still count as a hero after a campaign scenario ends?
- After freeing Mendor in Dol Guldur, can you still play an ally from hand?
- Can Miner of the Iron Hills remove a campaign burden?
- Do boons and burdens carry over when Revised Core and Dark of Mirkwood are played as one campaign?
- Can an original Adventure Pack be played with a revised Hero expansion?
- In a three-player Angmar Awakened campaign, does each player need their own set of campaign cards?
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game – The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under HillExpansion
- Where does a discarded Troll Key or Troll Purse go, including when no Troll is in play?
- Does a Troll Purse reduce the cost of traveling to the Troll Cave?
- If the Troll holding the Troll Key or Troll Purse dies, where does the item go?
- Which Troll does a Troll Key or Troll Purse attach to, and can players attach it themselves?
- Do the Troll Key and Troll Purse count as attachments for effects such as a sack on the hero with the most attachments?
- Which character receives a sack when attachment counts are tied, or in a multiplayer game?
- If you voluntarily engage a Troll, do you still get sacked?
- Does Bert's sack effect trigger every time a Troll moves from the staging area to a player?
- Which abilities still work on a sacked hero, and can it spend resources?
- Can a sacked character be readied by card effects?
- Does a character sacked during the quest phase still count as committed to the quest?
- Can Kili's response put Fili from your hand into play?
- How do Troll Camp's sack removal and unsacking work with Bilbo?
- Can Iron Hills Miner remove a sack?
- Do Troll enemy text effects apply to every Troll in play, and do they stop when one Troll leaves?
- When Over the Misty Mountains Grim says to shuffle all encounter cards, does that include cards in play?
- How does Guffawing of Giants work when drawn during setup, and what if no Stone-giant is available?
- How does Dori's response work with damage on a hero?
- Does Landroval revive Beorn when he is destroyed, and does he take the revive damage?
- Which encounter card does Suspicious Crow reveal, and do its When Revealed effects resolve?
- How does the cost limit work for A Very Good Tale, and can you put zero allies into play?
- Can you exhaust Bilbo to satisfy Goblin Driver's effect that the first player exhausts a character?
- Can a Dwarf hero with Narvi's Belt attached spend Baggins sphere resources?
- Does Bilbo collect a resource in the resource phase like other heroes?
- If Bilbo leaves play, does the game end at once even while other heroes are in play?
- Can you include both the old and new Gandalf in one deck, and can both be in play at once?
- How does the riddle mechanic work?
- If you answer a riddle, does the card's When Revealed effect still resolve?
- If a riddle completes the quest stage while staging is underway, do you finish staging first?
- If Bilbo fails a riddle, is the encounter card discarded or placed in the staging area?
- Can Gandalf's face-up top-card reveal show the riddle answer before the traits are named?
- If you solve a riddle, can Bilbo's Magic Ring still discard more cards for progress?
- When answering the Warg's Glade riddle, does the revealed location go to the staging area?
- Does Wargs' Glade's forced removal of a progress token apply to the riddle area's quest card?
- Can a riddle guess name a neutral card, and what cost does an X-cost card count as?
- What happens if your deck runs out while you are answering riddles?
- Can you keep answering riddles and placing progress past the quest threshold in Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim?
- What happens in the riddle area when a riddle is answered wrongly, and when do the players lose?
- Does Gollum attack again if a second riddle is failed in the same round?
- Does Gollum move with Bilbo when control passes between players?
- If Gollum attacks Bilbo and Bilbo cannot defend, who takes the undefended damage?
- Can players engage or attack Gollum while he is in the riddle area?
- Can Bilbo wield Sting or carry other attachments while he is in the riddle area?
- Can Gollum be killed in Into the Fire?
- Does stage 2B of Ere Break of Day need a progress token once the trolls are dead?
- If the encounter deck runs out during stage 2B of We Must Away, does the advance to stage 3 happen before any reshuffle?
- Does the forced reveal of Out of the Frying Pan stage 1B happen in every staging step, and does advancing change the count?
- Must you discard a card when Dreary Hills' forced effect triggers with an empty hand?
- Does Nori's threat reduction trigger when Bofur is put into play by his quest action?
- Does making a location active with Thror's Map trigger its Travel effect?
- Does Goblins' Caves' +1 threat to Goblin enemies apply to a Goblin discarded from the encounter deck by Sting?
- Which encounter sets does Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim use when the rulebook text and quest card icons differ?
- When you advance to the next scenario of The Hobbit saga, do threat and hand reset?
- Where are Treasure cards kept before you win them, and where do they go afterward?
- When Dawn Take You All discovers several treasures at once, who receives which treasure?
- Can you include Treasure cards in a later Saga scenario if you skipped the first scenario?
- Can you use Sting or other Hobbit treasures in quests outside the Hobbit scenarios?
- Do you shuffle your deck after searching for a Treasure card when the card does not mention shuffling?
- In Journey Down to Anduin's final part, do you skip the quest phase once all enemies are killed?
- Does a hero killed before quest resolution still count its willpower?
- How do you assign Grid, Grab! Pinch, Nab! shadow damage across two engaged Goblins?
- Does Goblin Axeman's shadow effect of -1 Defense apply to an undefended attack?
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game – The Hobbit: On the DoorstepExpansion
- Can you attack Smaug the Magnificent before his extra Forced attacks resolve?
- Does each of Smaug the Magnificent's extra Forced attacks get its own shadow card?
- Can an attachment on an unconscious hero still be used?
- If Keen-Eyed Took discards the revealed card during a burgle, do I still match that card or reveal a new one?
- When using The Lonely Mountain's burgle action to take the revealed card, which card must be matched?
- When a burgle attempt reveals the top card of the deck, is that card discarded?
- When can The Lonely Mountain's action be used?
- Does Smaug the Magnificent attack the first player in every combat phase, and how do you advance from stage 2 to stage 3 of The Lonely Mountain?
- Does excess quest progress carry over to a new quest stage in The Lonely Mountain?
- If a Dark Bats shadow card deals damage to the defending character, does Dark Bats attach to that character?
- Does the Great Yew Bow's ranged attack work against an enemy that is immune to player card effects, such as Bolg?
- In a solo game of Flies and Spiders, does stage 2B skip stage 3B and go straight to 4B, or do you skip stage 3?
- Does Weighed Down's -1 to all stats apply to each character as it exhausts?
- Does a Venom attack place poison in addition to regular damage?
- What happens with Venom poison when the player deck is empty?
- Can an unconscious character receive poison tokens from other card effects?
- If a Venom attack's damage is cancelled by a defender's response, is the character still poisoned?
- Can Bilbo Baggins gain resources from other cards, such as Steward of Gondor?
- If a defender becomes unconscious from a shadow effect during combat, is the attack treated as undefended?
- Can any ready character defend against Crazy Cob's when revealed attack, and does the attack become undefended if the defender is knocked out?
- Can Thror's Map make a location active when the current active location is immune to player card effects?
- Can a When Revealed effect place progress tokens on a card that is out of play, such as Smaug the Golden?
- Does Legolas's progress placed on a completed quest stage go on the current stage, and can it exceed the required amount?
- Does Smaug the Golden stay engaged with you after attacking, and is it worth attacking him?
- In The Lonely Mountain, do you win as soon as Smaug the Magnificent leaves play?
- Is stage 5B of Battle of the Five Armies a quest stage for effects that depend on quest stages without progress?
- Can a player who does not control Bilbo play Lucky Number, which uses Bilbo's resources?
- Once a Black Arrow is in a victory display, can another player play a second copy?
- Does the first player token pass during the Flies and Spiders stage where the first player is separated with Bilbo?
- Does Bilbo change hands when the first player token passes in multiplayer Flies and Spiders?
- Does Spider's Glade add a spider in addition to the normal staging cards, and can you choose which spider?
- When are players allowed to burgle?
- Can Balin cancel a Burgle effect on a shadow card, including during the Smaug fight?
- In Down, Down to Goblin Town (stage 3B), where do the encounter cards revealed by the When Revealed effect go?
- Can Sneak Attack put Erebor Battlemaster into play even if Oin, a hero, cannot pay for him?
- In Battle of Five Armies, do card effects that affect the current quest only hit the chosen stage?
- Does Bilbo need to exhaust to use his Baggins treasure-search action, and can it be repeated?
- Do Bodyguard of Bolg cards added by The Clouds Burst count as revealed and trigger Bolg's surge?
- What counts as a ranged attack for Bard the Bowman?
- Do unconscious characters still count toward Dwarf thresholds such as Erebor Battle Master's?
- If an undefended attack's shadow effect gives the defending character poison, where does the poison go?
- Do unconscious characters' constant (passive) effects still function?
- Do you control a Poison attachment that attaches from the encounter deck, so you can discard it voluntarily?
- When Ravenous Wargs' forced effect names the character with the most damage, can another character still defend?
- If a character defending against a Venom enemy is destroyed, does it receive Poison first?
- Can a Treasure card taken into hand in The Lonely Mountain be played?
- Can Miner of the Iron Hills remove poison conditions when it enters play?
- If Bilbo takes poison from Sting's shadow effect, does Magic Ring's cancel remove it?
- Once a character is readied from unconscious with Baggins resources, does it stay conscious?
- Can Smaug the Golden be attacked despite his immunity to player card effects?
- When a forced effect triggers while another forced effect is resolving, which resolves first?
- Does Fighting Among Friends always remove Gandalf from the quest?
- Does The Clouds Burst stage 5 count as a quest stage with no progress tokens for Bodyguard of Bolg and Gundabad Archer effects?
- Does Thror's Key keep working when it is attached to a location that becomes active?
- Which Bilbo do you use for the Hobbit: On the Doorstep scenarios?
- Is Dragon-Spell a condition, and how does it leave play?
- Does searching the encounter deck for a Spider include the discard pile?
- When Smaug's forced effect advances the quest to stage 4 mid-quest, does the quest phase end?
- Can you trigger Sting's response and then Magic Ring's response to the same exhaust-to-defend event?
- Do Goblins that enter play after Chaos in the Cavern get its +1 bonus?
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game – The Fellowship of the Ring: Saga ExpansionExpansion
- Which cards can Gandalf play from hand and from the top of his deck?
- Can a hero of another sphere pay for an attachment on Gandalf or Frodo?
- When Gandalf plays the top card of his deck, is the next card turned face up, and must it follow phase timing?
- Can Frodo be switched between his two versions between scenarios?
- Does Chamber of Mazarbir's text stop the quest from advancing while the location is in the staging area?
- Does Uruk of Mordor attack twice, once when revealed and again in combat?
- If a quest says enemies cannot be engaged and to skip the encounter phase, do enemies still enter the staging area?
- Do healing effects on characters, such as Glorfindel or Lore of Imladris, apply to characters in other players' tableaux?
- Which hero has the Healer trait so that Hands of a Healer can be attached?
- If a shadow effect makes an attack undefended, does a character already exhausted to defend ready again?
- Can an ally committed to a quest but not exhausted join a Hide test, and keep its bonus?
- Does Frodo's card cancel the whole encounter card, including surge, doomed, and hide?
- After a failed Hide, can a Nazgûl forced attack be defended, and does the Nazgûl attack again in the combat phase?
- Does The Balrog attack twice, once at the end of the quest phase and again in the combat phase?
- Does an evil wound redirected to the Ring-bearer still let the Ring-bearer's defense count when defending?
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game – Angmar Awakened Campaign ExpansionExpansion
- Can Iarion's Pendant cancel the when revealed effect of a side quest?
- What happens when the Time on Rescue Iarion runs out?
- Do forced effects on a side quest in the staging area trigger while it is not the active quest?
- Which Campaign Mode cards must be kept in order when unpacking Angmar Awakened?
- When a side quest is flipped over from the encounter deck, does its Surge or Time effect apply right away?
- Can the Angmar Awakened scenarios be played individually without the campaign?
- Does Aragorn's tactics effect let him engage Pack Leader even though Pack Leader cannot be optionally engaged?
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game – The Dream-chaser Campaign ExpansionExpansion
- Can you spend XP to upgrade a campaign card you have not encountered yet?
- Can you spend XP to upgrade a card after setup but before the scenario starts?
- Can Glorinaith's action discard cards from the encounter deck, or only from player decks?
- Does a side quest without the Navigation keyword stop Sailing tests in Across the Belegaer?
- Does Calaerion's improved ability ready the Dream-Chaser ship despite the ship being immune to player card effects?
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game – The Dark of MirkwoodExpansion
- When a quest says to add a matching Forest location or Goblin, can you choose any eligible card?
- Do the Dark of Mirkwood scenarios follow the core set's Mirkwood scenarios?
- When a card says to search and shuffle the encounter deck, do cards in the encounter discard pile get shuffled back in?
- If the encounter deck is empty when Cave Torch's forced effect triggers after the quest phase, does the deck reshuffle first?