Potion Explosion FAQ
56 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Game Setup
Game Turn
- How many completed potions can you drink in one turn?
- Can you drink a potion as soon as you complete it, while your turn is still going?
- Can you drink a potion when its effect cannot help you?
- Must you take your turn actions in a fixed order, such as taking ingredients before drinking potions?
- When can you ask the professor for Little Help, and can you use it more than once a turn?
Taking Ingredients and Explosions
- Do the marbles of the exploding colour hidden under the Dispenser roof also explode and get taken?
- If you take the middle marble of three or more same-colour marbles in a row, do the others still explode?
- When a column explodes, do you take all touching marbles of that colour in the line, or only the two that collided?
- Can one turn's explosions affect more than one slide track?
- Can marbles that roll into the ninth slot during an explosion or effect be taken in the same sequence?
Using the Ingredients
End of Turn
- When must leftover marbles in hand be returned to the Dispenser?
- Can you place marbles from your hand on a potion you just drew at the end of your turn?
- If you complete a potion before your regular pick, can you draw a replacement potion right away?
- Can you still take a marble and drink potions after completing two potions before your regular pick?
- If you complete two potions in one turn, do you take one or two new potions?
- Can you take potions from the visible piles one at a time, choosing a newly uncovered potion after the first?
Skill Tokens
- Can the same potion count toward both a three-of-a-kind and a five-different Skill Token?
- How many Skill Tokens can you earn from potion sets, and can you earn the five-different token more than once?
- If one turn completes two potions, can you earn both a three-of-a-kind and a five-different Skill Token?
- Must you take a Skill Token when you complete a set, even if it would end the game?
- Can you still earn Skill Tokens after the countdown stack is empty?
- Do completed potions count toward Skill Tokens even if you have not drunk them?
End of Game
List of Potion Effects
- Can Balm of Uttermost Stickiness take marbles that fall into view after the first ones are removed?
- With Potion of Magnetical Attraction, can you take the marble in slot 8 and then choose the new marble that drops into slot 8?
- Which marbles does Potion of Prismatic Joy affect, and does the effect last beyond the turn?
- Can the Filter of Lavamancing discard marbles that fall into view after the first ones are removed?
- Are marbles discarded by the Filter of Lavamancing returned to the Dispenser immediately, and do you choose where they go?
- Does Filter of Lavamancing require you to remove all marbles of one colour?
- Can Abyssal Draft take marbles that fall down into the bottom row after you start picking?
- Can Sands of Time re-activate any potion used earlier in the game, and can the same potion be re-activated repeatedly?
- When Sands of Time reactivates a potion, must you use it immediately or can you keep it for later?
Potion Explosion: The Fifth IngredientExpansion
- Do you get a Reward token when a Professor or Potion gives you access to the Ghastly Cauldron, not only when you exchange directly?
- How does Dram of Poltergeist Sweat work when you steal a marble and exchange it at the Ghastly Cauldron?
- If you have an empty potion hole and a White (Wild Ghost Ectoplasm) marble in hand, must you place it on a potion instead of keeping it in your Pool?
- Can you keep a White marble in hand while you drink potions or take a Little Help, before placing it?
- Must White (Wild) marbles that touch on the slide share one colour, or can you choose each one's colour?
- Can you change a White marble's colour after its explosion has already resolved, to take a different colour's marbles?
- Are White marbles used at all when the Ghastly Cauldron potions are not in play?
- Where do the wild white marbles start in The Fifth Ingredient, and does the marble count on the tray change?
- If the Reward tokens run out in The Fifth Ingredient, can you still earn rewards?
- How long does Chameleonic Varnish stay active?
Potion Explosion: The 6th StudentExpansion
- Can Wild ingredients or other colours be added to a potion layer that already contains Mandragora Leaf?
- Can Mandragora Leaf marbles be taken together with Stickiness or Feather Touch?
- How does Extract of Shuffling Fortune work with 5-6 players, who have two Dispensers?
- Do colour-specific potions such as Abyssal Draft work with Mandragora Leaf?
- Does the 10-potion Skill Token rule in The 6th Student replace the three-of-a-kind and five-different rules in 5 and 6 player games?
- Can Potion of Prismatic Joy put a non-Mandragora marble into a layer already started with Mandragora Leaf?