Villagers FAQ
186 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Game Setup
- How many copies of each villager are in the game?
- How many cards does each player start with?
- How many cards go into each draw stack during setup?
- Can players look through the face-down stacks to see their suits?
- Can Thieves be used in a 2- or 3-player game?
- How do you set up the Sheriffs and Thieves from the Scoundrels expansion?
- Do special cards get shuffled into the villager deck, and are they used in solo play?
Villager Anatomy
- How much gold does the Priest score for Solitary symbols?
- What does the colour of a padlock icon mean?
- Does the Bed Builder need a Carpenter to unlock it?
- Can a covered card help unlock another villager?
- What does the keyring symbol number mean?
- Which villagers count as basic villagers?
- Does the Captain score the gold symbols on the Peddler and on his own card?
- Do coins printed on a card still earn money once another card covers it?
- Do cards count their own symbols, such as the Locksmith's own padlock?
- Why does the Bed Builder show two Hay symbols?
- Does the Cartwright need to be unlocked?
- Can you have several copies of the same villager in your village?
- Was the Peddler removed from the game?
- Can you build over a villager that has coins on it?
- Does a villager with Bribes coins stop being able to unlock once it has as many coins as its keyring shows?
Game Rules
The Draft Phase
- Can you draft face-down cards from the Reserve?
- If you play a draft-phase special card on your turn, do you still make your normal draft pick?
- Does the Recruiter let you draft past your draft limit?
- If you reach your draft limit, can you still play draft-phase specials on later turns?
- Do cards drafted from the stacks also go face-up on your Village Square?
- Why do players lay drafted villagers on the Village Square before taking them into hand?
- Can the Flaker be used on your own village square?
- If a villager is taken from another player's village square, does that player draft again?
- Does the Benefactor's draft symbol give you an extra draft this round?
- If you play a food card such as the Harvester with the Benefactor, do you get an extra draft?
- How does the Courier work with the replacement card on the Road?
- When you draft a card with coins on it, where do the coins go?
Updating The Road
- When a Road card is taken in the draft, where is its replacement drawn from?
- When Road cards are discarded at the end of the draft, are the replacements drawn from the Reserve or the stacks?
- Are coins placed on the Road cards during setup?
- Are there always six face-up villagers on the Road, even when stacks are empty?
- What happens when the Road runs out of face-down cards during the draft?
Updating The Road in 2 Player Games
Build Phase
- Can you place a basic villager without placing any other villager that turn?
- How many basic villagers can you take, and is the supply limited?
- Where do the cards you return for a basic villager go?
- How many villagers can you build in one build phase?
- Do Builder icons added during a build phase raise your limit that same phase?
- Must you be able to pay for cards when you lay them out, and in what order do you build?
- Can you build a villager directly on top of a production chain card to replace it?
- Does a partly covered villager still give its symbols?
- Do covered food or builder symbols count toward cards that score by counting symbols?
- Does a production chain with two branches count as one chain or two?
- Is there a limit on how many production chains you can have?
- Can you keep drafted villagers you do not build?
- Does the extra build from the Castellans winter event count against your build limit?
- Are build actions taken in player turn order?
- Can you start another production chain once both of your Founders cards are covered?
- When do Founders flip to the food side?
- In a solo game, does the Founders flip happen before or after the Event Phase?
- Do my Founders flip if they are covered by other cards?
- When an Apprentice swaps my own Founders, which side faces up?
Padlocks and Unlocking
- What happens if you cannot pay the gold to unlock a villager?
- Who do you pay to unlock a padlocked villager?
- If several copies of an unlocker are in play, which one do you pay?
- If a villager needs two different unlockers, must you pay each one?
- Can a Tinner unlock padlocks built in an earlier build phase, and does it count toward the build limit?
- Does a Carpenter earn coins from a villager built later in the same build phase?
- Can you place a villager on top of an unlocker such as a Blacksmith or Carpenter?
- Do coins placed on villagers for unlocking stay there, and can you spend them?
Apprentices and Monks
- When an Apprentice places a padlocked villager, do you pay its unlock and spend a build action on it?
- Can an Apprentice take a top villager, such as the top card of a production chain?
- Can you keep building a production chain after an Apprentice takes a middle card?
- Can you play an Apprentice when there is no valid card to take?
- Can an Apprentice swap with a Monk, and does the Monk keep its earlier role?
- Can two Apprentices swap a Monk and a Milk Maid in one build phase to rebuild a chain?
- Can a Monk placed in the middle of a production chain have two cards on top of it?
- Can a Monk start a production chain, such as a second Founders?
- Can you put two Monks in one production chain?
- What happens if a Monk or Apprentice becomes the top card of a chain?
- Can an Apprentice replace a top villager that is covered in the same build phase?
- Does an Apprentice count as the symbol of the villager it replaces when scoring silver?
- Can an Apprentice steal a villager that has coins on it?
- Does an Apprentice swap count as one build?
- Can you use an Apprentice on your own Founders?
Special Villagers
- When can you play a special villager, and when does its effect happen?
- Is there a limit on how many Special Villagers you can play in one build phase?
- Does a Freelancer count toward my build limit?
- How does the Smuggler score, and does the villager it is used on score again?
- When do you collect the 3 gold from a Thief?
- Can the Pigeoneer be used outside the Build Phase?
- Does the Pigeoneer's look-at-six ability count as one of your drafts?
- When is the Recruiter played, and does its ability apply every round?
- Does the Schemer let you build a stolen card immediately?
Developments
- Does the Development Phase happen after every Build Phase?
- Do the same developments stay in play all game, and does the token stay with its winner?
- Do development coin icons score during the market phases?
- Lighthouse (Mercantile token): how much silver does each player count when deciding who wins it?
- If the same player wins two Tavern and Sawmill developments, can one reward change who wins the other?
- When counting villagers for the most-villagers development, do covered villagers count?
First Market Phase
Second Market Phase
- Are coins sitting on villagers scored in both market phases, and must they be moved or scored separately?
- Do coins placed on a card count as gold symbols when silver scoring is done?
- Does the Locksmith count only black padlocks or all padlocks?
- When does the Second Market Phase happen?
- What happens if the second market card is revealed before the first?
- Do silver scoring cards count symbols buried under other cards?
- Do symbols on covered cards score at the market, and can their food be used?
End of the Game
- How many rounds does a game usually last?
- When a card scores for every two symbols, do you round an odd count up or down?
- In a final tie break, do you count all villagers or only the top ones?
- If only one card is left on the Road at the end of a round, does the game continue?
- Do coins left on villagers at the end of the game still score?
Solo Mode
- Can you use the Jester on an event that Mood Swing replaces?
- If Mood Swing draws an event whose effect only happens in the build phase, does that effect still happen?
- Can you use the Jester on a new event drawn later in the same event phase?
- If the It Was You event comes up and you do not have the Jester, do you lose the game?
- When do Winter events start in solo mode, and can you delay them?
- In solo mode, should you choose the option that is best for the Countess?
- In solo mode, what happens when the Reserve runs out?
- In solo mode, what happens when an event makes you pay more than you can afford?
- Do the Kickstarter mini-expansion cards work in the Countess solo mode, such as their Bronze values?
- Do the Arson and Rats event cards cut your draft or build limit by one, and how does that interact with food and builder icons?
- Is there another Event phase after the Second Market phase in solo mode?
- Can you take the optional extra build from the Gambit event and skip placing the villager into the Countess village?
Solo Mode: The Countess
- Does the Countess draft a card every time you draft?
- In solo mode, how many cards does the Countess draft and build?
- When is the Road refilled during the draft in solo mode?
- What is the Countess's starting coin for in solo mode?
- When you draft from a face-down stack, does the Countess still get a face-up villager?
- How do the Countess's Grocer, Agent and Freemason cards score in solo mode?
- When the Countess has several multiplier cards, do all of them count when she scores in solo mode?
- In solo mode, can the Countess score zero by picking a villager without coins?
- When the Countess pays or earns coins, does she take them from your supply or from the bank?
- What does the Countess's Bank event change?
- In solo mode, who chooses the villager the Countess is paid from for the Bribes event?
- In solo mode, which Countess card does an event score when the event says to score one of her cards?
- When an Agent scores coins from several villagers in solo mode, who chooses which villager to score?
- How does the Scribe score for the solo Countess, who has no hand cards?
- In solo mode, do Silver symbol values on the Countess's events use the printed number or the full calculated value?
- In the final round, does the Countess take a card from the Reserve?
- In solo mode, do you refill the Road from the Reserve after drafting the final card on the last turn?
- In solo mode, how much starting gold does the player get when the Countess has only 1 gold?
- In solo mode, who starts each round's draft phase?
Clarifications
- Does the Barbarian take the coins on the road?
- When the Barbarian removes face-up villagers, where do they go and what replaces them?
- How does the Agent score?
- Do villagers on the Road, such as a Freelancer, do anything before they are built?
- What do other players learn when the Pigeoneer or Prophet takes cards from the stacks?
Villager Suits
Villagers: Shifting SeasonsExpansion
- In Monastery mode, when the Monastery takes a gold card from the Road, who chooses which card it takes?
- How do you resolve the end of the draft phase in Monastery solo mode?
- Do Teams count toward the build limit?
- Can a special X villager be built through the Pilgrims event?
- What happens if the discard pile has too few villagers to build for the Pilgrims event?
- Does the Tentmaker's extra build apply when it is played through the Pilgrims event?
- Are Events optional, or must you respond to them?
- When can you play the Forager, a draft-phase special card, and does it have to be in your hand?
- In Monastery mode, does the second market still happen if the final market card was never revealed?
- When the Monastery discards a card with gold on it, does the gold go to the Monastery?
- In Monastery mode, does the player always go first, and how many villagers does the Monastery discard?
- In Monastery mode, does the Monastery have a hand, and do you start with 5 cards?
- Are multiplayer-only event cards like Weddings removed in Monastery mode?
- Are the Monastery mode scoring ranges based on the base game or on the expansion setup?
- In Monastery mode, how are coins added to road cards and unpaid cards discarded?
- Can you build a card on top of an Engineer to continue a production chain?
- Can the Inventor and Engineer both be used on the same production chain?
- What happens to gold on a villager if another card is built on top of it?
- When the Merchant or Travellers event places coins on a villager, do they come from your supply or the bank?
- When the Outlaw steals a villager with coins on it, does the coin money go to you?
- How many Claymen do you use with fewer than four players in Shifting Seasons?
- How can you tell which cards belong to the Shifting Seasons expansion?
- Can Jack o' Trades start two production chains of different suits, such as Grapes and Wool?
- Can one of Jack o' Trades' branches be a Grains chain, and can a Monk start a Grains chain?
- Can a Monk be played as Jack o' Trades?
- What happens with the Weddings event if a player has no villagers in hand?
- Does a Builder Team added during the build phase raise your build limit for that same phase?
- Can Shifting Seasons activate out of order, for example Autumn before Spring?
- How is the Merchants event scored when it says to score one production chain?