Nemesis: Retaliation FAQ
226 questions players ask · Updated Nov 7, 2026 · Full rulebook
The Queen
- How do you resolve a shot at the Queen?
- What happens to the Queen's Hits marker and leftover hits after a Queen Health card is resolved?
- Does the Queen keep her damage and Health cards if she leaves the board?
- If a Queen Health card discards the last cards and kills her, is its bottom effect still resolved?
- Do Burst hits count toward the Queen's Health track?
- When shooting the Queen, do I still roll the Shoot die and risk losing Ammo?
- What does 'Activate the Queen' do?
- What happens when a Queen token comes out of the bag during Bag Development?
- Where does the Queen appear when her token comes from a Noise marker or a Hazard result?
- Can the Queen activate several times in one Event phase?
- Can Intruders Burning (Fire) kill the Queen?
- Can a single multi-hit card or effect kill the Queen in one go?
- What does 'Place the Queen back in the pool' on a Queen Health card mean?
Intruders
- How many Intruders enter a Room with a Character from adjacent Corridors?
- What do Secure tokens stop, and what do they not stop?
- Does a Secure token get discarded when Intruders enter a Room with no Character?
- Can a Corridor hold a Noise marker and Intruders at once?
- What happens when a Noise roll hits a Corridor that already holds Intruders?
- Does an Intruder placed by a Hazard or Noise roll attack immediately?
- Do Intruders in Corridors attack or move during the Intruder Phase?
- Can an Intruder move twice in one Event card?
- What happens when Intruders move through a Closed Door?
- How does Repelling an Intruder work?
- How do Intruders choose between equally short routes?
- What if Intruders must enter a Corridor that is full?
- What does drawing the Blank token do?
- When an effect says to resolve Noise markers, do I draw one token per marker?
- Is there a limit on Intruders in a Room?
- Which Character does an Intruder attack when several are in the Room?
- How far does an Intruder move on an Event card, and what happens to its damage?
- What do the numbers on the back of Intruder tokens mean?
- Where do Intruder tokens go after being drawn from the bag?
- What if an Event places Intruders in the Nest before it has been discovered?
- When does a Character who Passes get attacked?
Intruder Health and Combat
- When does an Intruder in a Room die from a shot?
- Do I still roll when shooting a Larva?
- What does Fire a Shot need, and when does it spend Ammo?
- Can I Burst at a Corridor with no Intruders?
- Can I Burst while Intruders are in my Room?
- Can I Burst into a Corridor with a Closed Door?
- How are Burst or Grenade hits assigned?
- Can any Ranged Weapon Burst?
- Which die is used for shooting, bursting and noise?
- What does Fire do to Intruders?
- Do injured Intruders keep Hit markers when they move to a Corridor?
- What happens when I Melee Attack an Intruder?
- Do I Shoot or Burst the Queen?
- Can the Sharpshooter's One by One kill Drones or armored Intruders?
- Does the Lucky Burst Die cost an extra Action card?
- Do Intruders attack every time I shoot?
- Do Intruders get attacks when I leave a Room?
Game Round Structure
- Do I have to Pass when I have no cards, and can I Pass with cards in hand?
- When do I lose Oxygen and take Fire damage?
- Does the Player Phase end after everyone has taken two Actions?
- Is there a hand limit during the round?
- Does playing a Reaction count as an Action, and when can I play one?
- Does playing an Action card cost one of my two Actions?
- If an Action card draws cards and my deck is empty, is the card itself reshuffled?
- When I order another Character to act, who pays the card, and what is forbidden?
- When I order a Character to Move, who rolls Noise and who is attacked?
- Do I make a Noise roll when moving into an unexplored Room?
- When an Event says to resolve Noise in each unexplored Corridor, do Corridors without Noise get one?
- What if an Event effect cannot be resolved?
- On a Breaking In Event, does an entering Intruder attack, and again later?
- When do Queen tokens get added to the bag?
- When the Event deck runs out, what is reshuffled?
- In the final Round, are the Intruder and Event Phases skipped?
- Does Duck and Cover stop an Intruder entering my Room from attacking?
- What does Chain of Command let the ordered Character do?
- Is a Hazard still resolved in a Room that already holds an Intruder?
- Can I look at another player's Action card discard pile?
Setup
- Does the Contractor get Tactical Gear tokens at setup?
- Are Noise markers placed on Corridors next to the undiscovered Hibernatorium?
- Do Fire and Malfunction effects still apply to the undiscovered Hibernatorium?
- Where are Door slots at setup, and are they Open?
- What happens to Support Equipment cards not picked in the draft?
- How does the Contractor draft work, and is the Consultant guaranteed?
- What are the Help card player numbers used for?
- Can the game be played with six players?
Items
- How does a Grenade token work, and is it a Burst?
- Can one Use Any Tactical Gear action spend several tokens, including several Grenades?
- Can I discard Items or Tactical Gear tokens at any time?
- Are Items I find loaded with Tactical Gear?
- Do I show the Items I searched but did not keep?
- How do I tell a Heavy Item, and where does it go?
- Can I drop a Heavy Item or an Egg and pick it up later?
- Does Armor absorb damage?
- What can I still do with a Weapon that has a Malfunction marker?
- What happens if an Item gets a second Malfunction marker?
- How do I get more Support Equipment during the game?
- Who can trade when a Trade Action is used?
- Can I use a healing Item on another Character?
- Can an RPG, Remote Detonator or explosion hurt other Characters?
- Can the Grenade Launcher fire grenades and a normal Burst in one action?
- Can the Lucky Burst Die be used on a Grenade roll?
- Do I still roll the Shoot die when the Automatic Shotgun's extra Hit kills a Larva?
- When does the Medic's gun add its extra damage?
- How does Duct Tape combine Heavy Items?
- Can I place a Secure token in a Room containing an Intruder?
- What does 'Spend Ammo' do to an Ammo token?
- Can a Weapon Burst or Shoot with no Ammo token?
- What happens to an Item after a single use?
- Is a Data token consumed when used?
- With a Repel 1 Item like the Military Taser, who chooses the Corridor?
- Does 'Remove' a Contamination card put it in my discard pile?
- Can Armory ammo replace a half-full token?
- Does Flashbang's prevention cover attacks from the Noise roll after the Move?
- Does a hand injury raise the cost of a Weapon's Shoot?
Map
- Which Doors does a 'close all Doors around this Room' effect close?
- How is a new Corridor's Door slot oriented?
- Does a Closed Door block Bursting and other Actions past it?
- Can a Door be placed somewhere without a Door slot?
- Do the Hibernatorium's Doors start closed?
- How does Fire spread, and where can it go?
- What does a Malfunction marker on a Room stop?
- Where can Secure tokens be placed, and how many?
- What happens when an Intruder enters a Room with a Character and a Secure token?
- What do I need to Reinforce a Corridor?
- Is an unexplored Corridor also an 'empty' Corridor?
- Is a Noise marker removed if I Move through its Corridor?
- What if no Room of the required type (A, B, C) is left when exploring?
- Do Corridors from an Exploration card lead off the map or into already placed Rooms?
- Can the Alarm Room make Noise in a Corridor with Intruders?
- Which Section is a Corridor on a Section border in?
- How are Eggs in the Nest destroyed?
- What does the Reactor do, and does entering it activate it?
- What if there is no Corridor leading to a Room I need to reach?
- Can the Landing Zone refill my Tactical Gear?
- If an Event spawns Intruders in a Corridor with Noise, does the marker stay?
- Does Fire in the Hibernatorium work like elsewhere?
- Do I draw an Exploration card when I reach the Hibernatorium?
- Can I Use a Room while an Intruder is in it?
Character Movement
- Do I make a separate Noise roll after exploring a new Room?
- Does moving into a Room that has Intruders trigger an attack?
- Can I Move Cautiously into a Room with an Intruder, or to one that can't be Secured?
- Can I Move Cautiously through a Corridor with Intruders and still Secure the destination?
- Does a Secure token from a cautious Move go down before the Entrance Effect?
- What does a Hazard result do?
- Must a Character in combat make an Event card's Noise roll?
- When Noise resolves into Intruders in a Corridor, do they enter the Room and attack?
- In what order are same-value Corridors resolved on a Noise roll?
- Is the Noise die weighted toward 4s?
- If an Exploration card shows Noise on a Corridor already on the map, do I place it?
- Is an Exploration card marked 'remove from the game' removed even if I skip the Entrance Effect?
- Can I order another Character to Move into unexplored territory or into danger?
- How does Shoot First work?
- Can Sprint move past Intruders without Opportunity Attacks?
- How much does Duck and Cover prevent during a Move?
- Can Move Quietly take me to any discovered Room?
- Do card-based moves like vents still trigger a Noise roll?
Character
- When do I gain a Suffocating token, and what does it do?
- How do Serious Wounds work, and do duplicates stack?
- Does the Eyes Serious Wound help shooting?
- Do Serious Wounds cancel my Armor?
- Can I use my Tactical Gear (Oxygen, Medpack) on another Character?
- Can I move loaded Ammo between Weapons?
- Can I rearrange Tactical Gear tokens as one action?
- How does the Sharpshooter's One by One repeat?
- Can I play Stay Calm on myself?
- How does Fast Reload work?
- Can a Weapon that requires no Ammo pay a card's 'Spend Ammo' cost?
- What do the rank triangles mean, and who can Chain of Command order?
- What is the difference between Securing and Reinforcing?
- Do Secure tokens leave when the last Character does?
- What happens to a dead Character's Items?
- Can I shoot or Burst into a Room from outside it?
Robot
- What can't I do when the Robot has a Malfunction marker?
- Does the Robot roll Noise when it moves, and can it explore?
- Does the Exploration Robot resolve Entrance Effects?
- Where does the Robot start, and when is its card revealed?
- How do I Activate the Robot, and does a Data token remove the Computer requirement?
- Do Intruders or Fire hurt the Robot?
- Does the Robot need to be in the Drilling Station?
- Is the UAV a Robot?
- Can a Robot with a Malfunction marker still be affected by Events?
Lander and Anti-Aircraft System
- When does the Lander land?
- Can I show the Anti-Aircraft tokens or reactivate the system?
- What happens to Characters waiting in the Lander?
- Does a Malfunction marker on the Landing Zone stop the Lander landing or boarding?
- How much does the Lander room action cost?
- Can effects move the Lander token after it has landed?
Objectives and Mission Task
- How does choosing an Objective work, and must I choose?
- When are Objectives checked, and do dead Characters win?
- Does a Character who Escaped count as Escaped if Infection kills them?
- How do Solo/Coop Mission Tasks work, and can Tasks 3 and 11 coexist?
- What if there's no space left to place the Nest?
- Does blowing up the Facility complete the System Shutdown objective?
End of the Game
- Does Autodestruction still go off if the game ends before the Round marker reaches it?
- What happens if Fire markers run out?
- How does the end-of-game Infection and Eclosion check work?
- Does boarding the Escape Shuttle remove Suffocating, and is Oxygen still lost afterward?
- Do Lander, Hibernatorium and Escape Shuttle actions need a Noise roll?
Procedures
- Can I Escape or Hibernate with an Intruder in the Room?
- If Intruders enter the Hibernatorium after I Hibernate, am I affected?
- After Autodestruction is active, can I still win by Hibernating?
- Can the Hibernatorium be switched off once activated?
- If I already have a Larva and another infected card is scanned, what happens?
- Which cards count in the Eclosion Procedure?
- Where do Contamination cards go after the Infection Procedure?
- How does a fire-spread Event choose corridors?
- Does 'resolve Noise in each unexplored Corridor' cover the whole Facility?
- Does a Malfunction marker on the Reactor stop Autodestruction?
Contamination Cards
Golden Rules
Additional Modes
Nemesis: Retaliation – Untold Stories #4Expansion
- In Untold Stories #4, what happens to Queen tokens drawn before the Queen enters?
- What carries over between Untold Stories #4 missions?
- Are there corrections to the printed Untold Stories #4 setup pages?
- Where does the Queen's marker start in Untold Stories #4 Mission 5?
- What does PN mean, and are all placed tokens shown on their cards?
- How does the rebel scout move under the Queen token rules in Mission 3?
Nemesis: Retaliation – Stretch GoalsExpansion
- Do I roll Noise after killing a Cultist with the Cult Skill card active?
- How does a Twitchling get on my Character board in Leaving the Frame?
- Does the Insider make Opportunity Attacks, and whom does a hostile Insider target?
- Does the Eye Serious Wound affect Bursting?
- Neoflesh Cult: which attack row applies for a Technical Corridor room action?
- What represents Tissue for the Xenobiologist?