Tyrants of the Underdark FAQ
103 questions players ask · Updated Nov 7, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup and Components
- How many copies of each card are in a market half-deck, and can a card appear in two half-decks?
- What happens if the victory point tokens run out?
- How do I tell which market half-deck a card belongs to?
- What is a player's barracks?
- Can I buy a starter card from the devoured pile, and do devoured starter cards go back to the box?
- Are there rules differences between the first edition (miniatures) and the second edition (tokens)?
- Does the history text about Underdark locations affect play?
Sequence of Play
- Can I play more than one card per turn?
- Do I have to play every card in my hand?
- In what order do end-of-turn steps happen?
- Can two cards that each promote a card at the end of the turn promote each other?
- Can a promote-from-discard effect target a card I played earlier this turn?
- When do I score the VP on a total-control site marker?
- What happens if all of my cards end up promoted?
- Are hands and discard piles hidden?
Playing Cards
- Is the part of a card before the arrow optional, and is the rest of the card mandatory?
- Can I play a card if I cannot do everything it says?
- Can I deploy fewer troops than a card says when more spaces are open?
- Must I finish resolving one card before playing another?
- In what order do a card's actions resolve?
- Does a card that says to place troops let me ignore Presence?
- How does Focus work?
- If I have two cards with Focus of the same aspect, do both trigger?
- If a card is devoured or discarded from my hand, do I get its effect?
- Can I devour the card I just played?
- When a card makes an opponent discard, who chooses the card?
- Can I play all my other cards, then Insane Outcast, and still discard a card for its ability?
- How do Insane Outcasts get into a deck, and what if there are not enough?
- If a card says promote without 'may', must I promote?
- Can I promote a card that was returned to the market or devoured?
- Can opponents see which card I promote, and does it do anything besides score?
- Can I promote a card still in my hand?
- Can a card that recruits (Conjurer) take a House Guard or Priestess of Lolth?
- Can a devour-from-market effect hit a House Guard or Priestess of Lolth?
- If an opponent's card makes me discard, is it from my current hand?
- If a card says discard when the opponent has 3 or more cards, can it take them below 3?
Resources and Basic Actions
- Can I spend Power or Influence between playing cards?
- Can I spend pooled resources while a card is still resolving?
- What can I do without playing a card?
- Do assassinate, deploy or supplant effects printed on a card cost Power?
- Can I deploy several troops or recruit several cards in one turn?
- When is the market refilled?
- What if a recruit effect has no matching card in the market?
- What is the difference between supplanting and assassinating?
Presence
- What gives me Presence at a site?
- Does a spy give Presence on adjacent spaces?
- Does a lone troop on a route space give me Presence there?
- Does a troop standing on a site give me Presence there?
- Is adjacency between whole routes and sites, or between individual spaces?
- Are a site's circle and rectangle one site for adjacency?
- Can I assassinate at a site where I have only a spy?
- Can I deploy troops at a site where I have no Presence by placing a spy first?
- Can I assassinate a white troop where I have no Presence?
- Does 'anywhere on the board' remove the Presence requirement?
- Can I return my spy and then supplant a troop at that spy's site, even if the spy was my only Presence there?
- Are troops in different spaces of the same site adjacent to one another?
- When a card deploys several troops, do I recheck Presence for each?
- Where can I deploy if I have no troops on the board?
- What if I lose my last troop on the map?
- Do I need Presence to give an opponent an Insane Outcast or make them discard?
- Are white troops enemy troops, and do they count as another player?
- Can a card that returns troops or spies return enemy pieces?
Control and Site Control Markers
- What counts as control of a site?
- Do spies count toward control or total control?
- What counts as total control of a site?
- Does a troop in a route space next to a site count for control?
- Do I get the marker's effect on the turn I take it, and does flipping to total control change the influence?
- How do site control markers and board VP interact?
Troops, Spies and Other Actions
- Can I move or return my own troops without a card?
- Can I move a white troop, and where can it go?
- Can I place a spy without playing a card?
- Can I have two spies on the same site?
- Can I move a spy once all of mine are placed?
- Does returning an enemy spy need Presence?
- When a card deploys 2 troops, can the second be next to the first?
- What happens when I must deploy but have no troops left?
Specific Cards
- Is Nalfesgnee's promote effect mandatory?
- Does Demogorgon's devour cost pay for all effects after the arrow?
- Can Olhydra supplant a non-white troop?
- Where do troops taken with Lich go, and from whose trophy hall?
- Can Orcus take troops from several trophy halls, and where do they go?
- Can Ulitharid play a market Minotaur Skeleton then devour it for the assassinate option?
- Can Octopus Army return one troop and one spy?
- If I devour an Insane Outcast, do the devouring card's other effects still happen?
- Does the White Dragon's 'for each 2 sites you control' count all sites or only those with markers?
- When do I get the Dragon's VP?
- Does Nothic's 'each player discards' trigger when I only place a spy?
- Can a card promote itself?
Ending the Game and Scoring
- What triggers the end of the game?
- Does deploying my last troop end the game immediately?
- Who takes the final turn?
- Can returning a troop cancel the end trigger?
- Is there a tiebreaker?
- Does a site need a marker to score total control at the end?
- Should the market deck shrink for fewer players?
- Do spies go to my barracks when returned?
Tyrants of the Underdark: Expansion Decks – Aberrations & UndeadExpansion
- How does Quaggoth's assassinate work?
- Can Elder Brain bring Carrion Crawler back to the Inner Circle?
- Can I play Skeletal Horde, deploy 2, then devour it for 3 more?
- Can Ghost take the top devoured card?
- Can Lich retrieve white troops and redeploy them with my Presence?
- Can Neogi make an opponent holding 3 cards discard?
- What does 'promote an Undead card' mean?