82 questions players ask about Moon Colony Bloodbath, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-29.
The designer answered this directly.
Not with the box contents. The designer has run a six-player game by improvising: substitute tokens for the missing chits and sleeve five unused Twists to serve as the sixth player's Perks.
Several players agree on this; no official ruling.
They are markers to tell the two face-down decks apart, since Robots and Twists share the same card back. Put one chit on each deck.
One player stated this; no official ruling or rulebook text was found.
Use two random White Twists for your first game, and any two random Twists in later games.
The rulebook states it in the Restock description.
Boxes go on any of your buildings, never on the playmat.
Players report the second printing corrects the typo; no official post confirms it.
Five: Restock, Build, Mine, Farm and Research. The "four" on page 4 of the first printing is a typo that the later printing fixes.
They mark that you have finished resolving your Work action, and the numbered slots count how many Work cards have come up since the last reshuffle, so you can plan around how many remain. They also help you remember where you were after an interruption.
The rulebook explains the colour-coded abilities.
Look at the ability's colour and keyword: a yellow MINE ability fires when you Mine, and so on. A white building ability is tied to no action and only reacts to something specific, like Organ Banks and Accidents.
The rulebook describes PLAY as a one-time effect on building.
Only once, when you build the card. Repeating effects are the action-coloured abilities such as MINE or FARM, which trigger each time you take that action during a Work.
The rulebook says so and the designer confirmed it for specific cases.
In any order you like, and before or after the action itself. This lets you, for example, farm first and spend the food on Restaurant, or use money from one ability to pay for another.
Yes. Abilities that fire for the same action can be resolved in any order, so you can take the PLAY money first and then spend it on Spaceport.
Yes. Place the box first, then spend it on the new building's PLAY ability, since the ordering of these abilities is free. One player argued a pedantic reading of the ordering rule forbids it, but the designer disagrees.
Players read the rulebook ordering rule this way; a few prefer 14.
Under the rules as written you get 11: the two Mine abilities resolve one after the other, so the second sees the 5 money gained from the first. Some groups play 14 for fun, which is a house choice.
The rulebook explicitly states this with the Kale Farm example.
Yes. Building abilities tied to an action trigger whenever you perform that action, even if it was not caused by Work. Building Kale Farm, for example, makes you Farm and gives its extra +1 food.
Two players agree; no official ruling.
No. It is a free effect that comes on top of whatever action you chose; it does not count as an additional Work action.
Players agree; it follows from the rulebook's description of coloured abilities.
No. It only fires when you take that action on a Work turn (or are otherwise doing that action). The PLAY ability happens once, when built.
Players agree and cite the rulebook ordering rule.
Yes. Building abilities can resolve before or after the action they are tied to, and you only need to spend one box for the Kitchen.
The designer answered this directly.
No, boxes stay where they were placed unless a card lets you move them (Warehouse does). There is no limit to how many boxes a building can hold.
Yes, unless the card names a specific one. Nursery is the exception: its ability only works with a box on the Nursery itself.
The designer answered this directly.
You pay 1 for a building that costs 7 with two Reactors. Reactor reduces what you pay, not the cost itself, and each Reactor applies to the full cost.
Players read the Reactor note this way; no official ruling.
No. Reactor changes what you pay, not the building's cost, so a building costing 5 or more is still ineligible for Construction Kits however much you reduce the payment.
Moon Hotel triggers on each separate food gain, not once per Farm action. A Farm plus a Kale Farm is two triggers, so +2 people. An earlier answer of one trigger was overturned by the designer.
The designer answered this directly.
Yes. "Any time" really means any time, including while another card is partway through resolving.
No. A box can only be spent once. R&D Storage only pays out if the box is spent for it, so a box that is lost or spent some other way gives no card.
The designer answered this directly.
Take the Maintain Development card and place it on top of the Progress deck, so it is the next card to happen.
Players favour this reading; one disagrees and there is no official ruling.
No. It only pays when a player adds a card through their own building or action, and the money comes when the card is added, not when it is drawn. A dissenting reading says it pays on draw.
One explanation, accepted by the asker; no official ruling.
No. Recycling only reacts to cards discarded (the card icon). Lost buildings use different wording and do not trigger it.
One player cites the card note; no official ruling.
Yes. It pays $1 for each card discarded, whether you discard one or several.
Yes. Surveying discards use the discard wording and symbol, so Recycling reacts to them.
The rulebook says you may spend food as money whenever you spend money.
Yes. Spend and pay mean the same thing, and food can stand in for money one-for-one in any mix. It does not count as money for effects that merely check how much money you have.
Players agree and the rulebook says food replaces money only when you spend it.
No. Losing money is not spending it. Budget Cuts takes money and ignores food.
Players agree on the card wording; no official ruling.
No. Organ Banks only works on Accident events, not on Leak or any other event.
The designer answered this directly.
They add. If you lose no people to Hunger you gain +2 plus +3 from each Clone Banks, so two Clone Banks give +8.
One player reports it; no official ruling.
Yes: 2 food, 1 box and 1 building card.
Two players agree; no official ruling.
It is only a reminder of what the Repair development does and has no immediate effect. Cards that add a development show a short reminder of that development.
No. It is not in your hand, so you cannot discard it and it does not count for effects like Research Robot. You may look at it so you know whether you can afford it.
Yes. You can build them in either order, but you must keep building them while any remain, and cannot build from hand until all are built.
The rulebook says abilities are mandatory unless they say otherwise.
Yes. Abilities are mandatory unless they say "you may", and the Perk ability does not.
The designer answered this directly.
Every player. Twists have no active player and affect everyone, so each player may pay to add a Perk. The added Perks go on top of the deck in any order.
Players agree; it is a convenience rather than a rule.
It is advice to help you find cards quickly. Alphabetical with pairs together is common, but it is not required.
The rulebook says so directly.
Nothing; you fail to add it, since there are only two copies of each Development.
One player explains it from the rulebook; no official ruling.
It puts the Innovation Development on top of the Progress deck. When it comes up, everyone may discard 2 cards to take a BUILD action.
No. You only get the bonus from one of your buildings for that action type, not the action itself or other buildings' bonuses.
Simultaneously, like other Developments and Twists. If you care what others do, decide at the same time.
One player explains the wording; no official ruling.
The cards you tucked under your mat on earlier draws of Surveying. On a later draw you can tuck another card or discard all of the tucked cards for money.
The rulebook says they do not interact.
No. Surveying cards go under your mat and are discarded for money; Construction Robot cards go on your mat and must be built first. Neither counts as in your hand.
Players agree on the card text; no official ruling.
Four separate parts: draw a card if you have a Research building, get a box with a Restock building, 2 food with a Farm building, and lose 2 money if you have no Mine building. Duplicates add nothing.
One player states it; the same applies to Hunger.
Only built buildings in play count; cards in hand are just ideas.
The designer answered this directly.
No. It makes you lose money, not buildings. Lose as much as you can, with no further penalty.
One player explains it from the card note; no official ruling.
No. A building costing more than 4 is not eligible even if you can pay less for it. You may spend a box for BUILD even with no eligible building.
The rulebook ties Hunger to Buildings you have.
No. Only built buildings count; cards in hand are only ideas. Pay all the food you can, then lose people for any shortfall.
The rulebook says so explicitly.
Yes. If you lose no people you get +2, even if no food was spent. Paying the food you can is mandatory.
The rulebook says so explicitly.
No. The cost is worked out once, and people are lost all at once as one big loss; you still pay food for a lost building.
Players agree; no official ruling.
Events stay in the game. Nothing is removed from the deck, so events and robots keep coming until the game ends.
The rulebook says so under Robots and Glitch.
Yes, like every added card, they go on top and happen next.
The designer answered this directly.
Yes. Resolve the 5 people first, then either lose a building or lose 3 more people, 8 in total.
The designer answered this directly.
Spending a box is optional. If you do not spend one, you lose 2 money, but only what you have, so with no money you lose nothing.
The designer answered this directly.
Yes, a single building.
The designer answered this directly.
Top to bottom: lose people first, then the next part of the card.
The rulebook describes this in the Robot notes.
No, it is set aside as a reminder and discarded when the next Work arrives. If there is no Work before the next reshuffle, it does nothing.
The rulebook says it does not stop buildings acting before that Work.
Everything except during that Work: Hackers still ignore Paperwork, and discard triggers, gains, Hunger and Accidents still apply.
The rulebook says set-aside cards are the only ones you can BUILD; the designer confirms elsewhere.
Yes. Cards set aside by Construction Robot must be built before anything from your hand, so the remaining one is the only card you can BUILD next. You can build the set-aside cards in either order.
The designer answered this directly.
Everyone loses people. The number lost equals the highest building count among players.
Players agree on the card; no official ruling.
Everyone loses 4 people, and 3 more if they have less than 8 food, 7 in total.
One player states it; no official ruling.
You do not choose. It adds the next random Twist and puts it on top of the deck.
The designer answered this directly.
No. Zero tokens on the mat are fine while you have people in buildings. You only lose a building when you must lose people you do not have. You are out at zero total people.
No tiebreaker: tied players share the win, and if everyone is wiped out together it is a shared loss.
Players agree and cite a designer remark elsewhere.
Nobody wins; it is a shared loss.
The designer answered this directly.
Yes. The eliminated player stops, but everyone resolves the card at once, so others finish it. Robot Companion cannot save an eliminated player.
The rulebook says the game ends then.
It ends, and the player with the most people wins. Continuing is a house rule.
One player confirms; the rulebook describes the Event.
Yes. You reach it when it is added and it becomes the next card; surviving it ends the game.
The designer answered this directly.
Do the part you can and skip the rest with no penalty. It does not mean repeat the effect as many times as you could afford. "May spend a box" abilities only work if you actually spend.
The designer answered this directly.
No. Each ability happens once per occurrence, even with extra resources.
The designer answered this directly.
You lose what you can, with no penalty.
Players apply the do-as-much-as-you-can rule.
You skip the draw. For Paperwork you still discard 2.
The designer answered this directly.
No rule covers it. The designer says he would handle it by giving no one any cards, after reshuffling the discards.
The rulebook states it.
Shuffle them together and place on top in random order. If only Perks are added, order does not matter.
The designer answered this directly.
Robots and Twists go in face down, Developments are public, and Perks may be public.
The rulebook states it.
Yes. It goes on the empty deck and happens next; the discards are only reshuffled when a card is needed and none remain.
The rulebook states it.
No. It works once per time it happens unless it says otherwise.
The designer answered this directly.
Yes, if you wish: add Robots instead of Events and count the Robots you survive.
The designer answered this directly.
You pass the building to yourself, so nothing happens.
One player confirms; no official ruling.
Yes; you are the player with the most buildings.