RoboRally FAQ
99 questions players ask · Updated Nov 13, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup
- Do robots start as virtual robots in the Avalon Hill edition?
- When does a virtual robot become a real robot?
- Can RoboRally be played with only two players?
- How many players can RoboRally seat?
- Can a robot move back onto the Docking Bay after leaving it?
- How do robots get from the Docking Bay onto the main board?
- How do robots enter the board in the Amigo edition, which has no virtual robots?
Object of the Game
The Basics
- What is the difference between a phase, a register and a turn?
- How does the Priority Token set the order of play?
- How do SPAM and Haywire damage cards work?
- Do the first and second WotC editions of RoboRally play differently?
- Are the 2005 and 2010 Avalon Hill editions of RoboRally different?
- What are the main rule differences between the original (Wizards of the Coast) and the Avalon Hill editions of RoboRally?
- How does a repulsor field move a robot that bumps into it?
Playing a Round
- Do you reshuffle the discarded program cards into the deck every turn?
- How many program cards do you get each round?
- Must you fill all five programming registers each round?
- Does card priority decide who acts first in a register?
- In what order do board elements act during a register?
- How do pushers work, and when do they act?
- In what order do express and normal conveyor belts move, and can a carried robot move again?
- When the programming timer runs out, what happens to cards held outside the registers?
- How long is the sand timer for programming?
- When do lasers fire relative to robot moves and board elements?
- Do board elements and lasers resolve after each register or only after all five cards?
- Can a Move 2 or Move 3 jump over a pit or another robot?
- Do walls and pits apply during a robot's move, or only after all robots have moved?
- Does a conveyor belt carry a robot that drives across it partway through a move card?
- Does a U-Turn card flip a robot in place?
- In older editions, does a teleporter move a robot that lands on it, and how far does a move card take you?
- Does a robot take flamer damage when it moves out of a flamer?
- Do you have to end a register phase on a flag to touch it, or can you pass over it?
- Can you touch a flag in any register, or only in the fifth?
- After touching a flag, can you head for the next one in the same round?
- If a robot touches the final flag and is destroyed later in the same round, does it still win?
- What does a Shutdown do, and when must you declare it?
- Can you discard a hand made only of turn cards and draw a new hand?
- Does touching a flag out of order count, and can your archive marker sit on it?
Continuing the Activation Phase and End of Round
- When do repairs and option cards happen at a wrench or repair site?
- Does a flag repair damage, and when?
- Do board elements keep running if every robot is powered down or destroyed?
- If two robots reach the last checkpoint in the same register, who wins?
- With Dynamic Archiving, does your archive marker update automatically when you end a register on a checkpoint or battery?
More on Racing Through the FactoryExpansion
- Does a robot turn when a conveyor belt carries it onto a curved belt?
- Which way does a robot face after a conveyor belt turns it at a curve?
- How far does an express belt move a robot in one register?
- When do crushers fire, and what happens to a robot caught under one?
- What are the numbered blue circular devices on the Coliseum and Circuit Trap boards?
- What happens if a robot moves or is conveyed off the edge of the board with no wall?
- Does a pusher that pushes a robot onto a conveyor move it again?
- Can a robot moved by a conveyor belt push a robot in its path?
- What happens when two conveyor-moved robots would enter the same square?
- What happens when a robot sliding on an oil slick bumps into another robot?
- When a board laser and a pressor beam both hit in the same register, which resolves first?
- Does a robot starting its move in water lose a space, and does a current count as water?
- Are flags on conveyor belts moved by the belt?
- Do trapdoors work the same way as flamers?
- How does a ramp affect movement?
- Must a robot start its turn on a Chasm teleporter pad for it to work?
- What do push panels and pits on the board do?
Robot InteractionsExpansion
- Can one robot push a whole line of robots at once?
- When you push a robot with a Move 3, does the pusher move its full distance?
- When two robots face each other and both move, who moves first, and what happens?
- Can a robot leapfrog over another robot in its path?
- Do Mini Howitzer and Pressor Beam also push a robot standing behind the target?
- In what order do robots fire lasers and resolve pushing or pulling weapons?
- What happens when a robot falls off a ledge onto a space occupied by another robot?
- Can a robot on a different level fire its laser at a robot on another level?
- Are virtual robots affected by conveyor belts, and can a virtual robot touch a flag?
- How does a robot pushed up a ramp move, and does the pushing robot go up the ramp too?
- Do robots shoot their own teammates in a team game?
- Which objects block a robot's laser or a board laser?
- Can I push a robot into a pit, and does a wall beside the pit stop it?
- Do robots take damage from bumping or pushing each other?
- Can a virtual robot re-enter on a space already occupied by another robot?
Damage
- What causes a robot to take damage?
- Do board and robot lasers damage a robot once per register or once per turn?
- Does a robot take laser damage just by crossing a laser's line of sight while moving?
- If a Tractor Beam pulls a robot into a board laser, does it take damage?
- Do Haywire cards in your registers reduce how many cards you draw in the programming phase?
- Does pushing another robot damage it?
Shutdown
- Can you shut down a robot that has no damage?
- Can a shut-down robot stay shut down for another round, even with no damage?
- When do you declare a shutdown, and do you still play that round?
- Does shutting down clear your damage?
- What happens to your program cards when you shut down?
- Can a shut-down robot still be pushed, moved or shot?
- Can a shut-down robot fire its laser or use upgrades?
- Can a shut-down robot touch a checkpoint, collect energy or win the race?
- Does shutting down or resuming play add 2 damage?
Rebooting
- What happens when your robot falls off the board or into a pit?
- How much damage does a robot take when it reboots?
- Do you lose your upgrades when your robot reboots?
- Where does a rebooting robot re-enter the board?
- What happens when two robots re-enter at the same time or the same space is occupied?
- How does Dynamic Archiving change where a robot reboots?