Smash Up: Awesome Level 9000 FAQ
92 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup
- Why does the formal Kickin' It Queensberry setup use only 8 factions instead of all of them?
- Can you play Awesome Level 9000 with 5 or 6 players?
- Can you play with just one or two expansions, and how many players does each allow?
- Should the expansion's base cards replace the base game's bases, or be shuffled in with them?
This Is How You Roll
- If a minion searched by Sprout, or a card drawn by Water Lily, is played in the same start-of-turn step, can it act that same turn?
- If Sprout dies at the start of your turn and Water Lily also draws at the start of your turn, do both abilities happen?
- If you have several Sprouts in play, can each one use its start-of-turn search?
- When can a Talent be used during your turn?
- Must you draw 2 cards in the Draw 2 Cards step, even when your hand is nearly empty?
The Big Score
- If Overgrowth is returned to hand after its start-of-turn effect has reduced a base's breakpoint, does the breakpoint go back to normal?
- Does Overgrowth lower the base breakpoint on the turn it is played?
- Does Overgrowth carry over to a replacement base after the base it is on is Terraformed?
- When is a base checked to see whether it breaks, relative to the minion and action you play that turn?
- If a Howl bonus raises a minion's power on the turn a base breaks, does the bonus count for scoring?
- Can you destroy your own Sprout on Field of Honor to score its victory point?
- If two or more Sprouts on Field of Honor destroy themselves at the start of your turn, how many victory points do you get?
- If one card destroys several minions at once on Field of Honor, how many victory points are scored?
- On Field of Honor, who gets the victory point when a moved minion is destroyed by another player's card?
- On Field of Honor, how many victory points are scored when a Nukebot is destroyed and its base-mates are destroyed too?
- Does Field of Honor score when a card tells you to destroy a minion but nothing is actually destroyed, such as a protected Buccaneer or a Sprout that General Ivan protects?
- If Sprout destroys itself at the start of your turn, do you gain VP from Field of Honor or Cave of Shinies?
- When a base scores, does its ability resolve before the cards on it are discarded?
- If a base's power drops below its breakpoint after it has been chosen to score, does it still score?
- When does an ongoing action's bonus, such as Aggromotive's +5 on a base, take effect, and when does the base score?
- If two players tie for the most victory points once someone reaches 15 VP, what happens?
Get to Know Your Cards!
- Can a Special card count as an extra card for Eliza's limit of one extra card per turn?
- Can you play a Special card on another player's turn?
- Can an opponent use the Talent of a minion or action that you control?
- What exactly does the Talent keyword mean on a card?
- Do actions with a Talent, such as Zeppelin, stay on the base after they are played?
Terms and Restrictions
- Does Steam Queen's 'your actions are not affected by other players' cards' let your actions destroy minions protected by General Ivan?
- Can Disenchant target an Ornate Dome that was played on a base?
- When a minion played with Make Contact returns to hand, does it go to the controller's hand or the owner's hand?
- Can Poison be played on a minion that is protected by Incorporeal?
- If Incorporeal is played on a minion that already has Poison on it, does the minion keep the -4 power? And does Incorporeal remove the attached action?
- When a card says to take a card from a discard pile into your hand, must you reveal it to the other players?
- Can a minion whose power is only raised after it is in play be played on Tsar's Palace?
- Does Tsar's Palace's restriction on playing low-power minions also stop them moving onto that base?
- Does Crop Circles count as an action played on a base, so that it can be played again and again?
- If part of an action cannot be carried out, does the whole action fizzle and get discarded?
- What do the Deep Roots players' abilities cover?
- If Disenchant destroys an opponent's Make Contact on a minion protected by Incorporeal, does the Incorporeal protection stay?
- If Wildlife Preserve and Steam Queen are on the same base, does one protect against the other?
- Does Hideout remove the power reduction from Sleep Spores already on a base?
- Does Dread Gazebo block actions like Rampage that affect a base but do not say 'play on a base'?
- Does Ornate Dome stop Terraforming or Sea Dogs, which affect a base but are not played on one?
Void Where Prohibited
- When several abilities trigger at once, in what order do they resolve, and when do Special cards get played?
- Can Disintegrator put a minion from a Deep Roots base on the bottom of its owner's deck?
- If Overrun stops minions from being played on a base, what happens to Sprout's searched minion?
- Does High Ground destroy a minion that moves onto a base protected by Pony Land?
- When two cards conflict, which one wins?
- When you play a card from your discard pile with Grave Digger or Zombie Lord, do its effects still happen?
Killer Plants
- If General Ivan stops a Sprout from being destroyed, does the Sprout still search your deck for a minion, and can it keep searching each turn?
- Does Weed Eater have 3 power on the turn you play it, and return to its printed 5 power afterward?
- How does Sprout work, and when does it get replaced?
- Can Sprout search when your deck is empty, and does the discard pile get reshuffled first?
- Can Sprout search for Weed Eater, since Weed Eater has power 3 when played?
- Does Venus Man Trap (or Sprout) search your discard pile when your deck runs low?
- With several Water Lilies in play, how many cards do you draw at the start of your turn?
Ghosts
- Can Spectre be played from the discard pile in place of a minion that is limited to one named minion, such as Shinobi's 'play this minion' ability?
- Can Spectre bypass a minion-power limit, such as a 'play a minion of power 2 or less' ability like Zapbot's?
- How does Spirit's 'discard cards equal to its power' cost work: does it use cards from your hand only, and is it a count of cards or their total power?
- Can Spirit target itself with its own ability to destroy a minion?
- As a Ghost, can you play Shady Deal or Seance when it would be your third card in hand? Has the played card already left your hand when the two-or-fewer check happens?
- Can Ghostly Arrival's extra minion and/or extra action be used for both, only one, or neither?
- With Ghosts that power up at two or fewer cards in hand, does the bonus start as soon as your hand drops, or only at end of turn?
- Can Spirit target a minion on any base, or only on the base where it is played?
Protection and Destruction
- What happens when a Poisoned Buccaneer must move but every base has an enemy Cub Scout?
- Can an Entangled Buccaneer still be saved from destruction if it cannot move?
- Does Entangled stop a First Mate from moving to a new base after its base scores?
- Does General Ivan's 'your minions cannot be destroyed' protect General Ivan himself?
- Does General Ivan protect your minions on any base, or only on the base where he is played?
- Does Choking Vines still destroy a minion when Smoke Bomb is played on that minion by its owner, including when Smoke Bomb comes after the Vines?
- Can one Cub Scout kill more than one minion in a turn when several weaker minions move onto its base?
- If Nukebot is destroyed and two Polar Commandos are on its base, do both die at once?
- When several opponent minions move onto a High Ground base together, is each one destroyed?
- Does Difference Engine's draw need a minion on its base at the end of your turn, or just at some point during your turn?
- Does Cub Scout destroy minions that You're Pretty Much Borscht moves onto its base?
- If a minion moves to a base where Central Brain gives +1 power and Cub Scout is also present, is the bonus counted before Cub Scout's destroy check?
- Does Leprechaun's 'after' ability resolve before a newly played Weed Eater's power is checked, so Weed Eater is destroyed and Haunting survives?
Playing Cards and Actions
- Does Steam Man get its +1 power when the base has more than one of your actions on it?
- How does Survival of the Fittest choose which minions to destroy?
- Does Probe look at one opponent's hand or every opponent's hand?
- If a Bear Cavalry is played on a base with a Leprechaun and its move ability moves the Leprechaun away, is the Bear Cavalry still destroyed?
- Can Bear's You're Screwed move one minion from each other player, or only one minion in total?
- Can you play Make Contact as your second action when it is the last card in your hand?
- Does Bear Hug's least-power minion include minions in hand or in the deck, or only minions in play?
- Can you play Powder Keg when your only minion is indestructible, such as Polar Commando?
- If you play Make Contact on an opponent's Ninja Acolyte, who gets the extra minion, and where does the Acolyte go?
- Can Mechanic return an action that only affects a base, such as Rampage, to your hand?
- On Haunted House, if you have no cards left to discard after playing a minion, can you still play that minion there?
- Can you play an action on a minion at Dread Gazebo or The Workshop, and does Workshop let you play a second action?