Vindication FAQ
298 questions players ask · Updated Nov 10, 2026 · Full rulebook
Game SetupExpansion
- When are the regions next to your starting space revealed, so they are available on your first move?
- Should the Kickstarter promo cards be shuffled into their stacks from the first game?
- Do you gain honor from your starting companion, and lose it if that companion leaves your party?
- Which region tiles make up the standard first-game set?
- How many region tiles go in the region bag at setup?
- Can a promo, foil or expansion companion be one of your starting companions?
- Can a companion that is not a starting companion be face up at the start of the first turn?
- How many influence cubes does each player start with?
- Which region tiles does Vindication: Chronicles need, compared with the base game?
Game Play
- When you acquire a card, can you take the face-up card or draw blind from the face-down stack?
- Can an empowered draw let you pick any face-up card in a stack?
- If you take the last face-up card from a stack, is the next card flipped up right away?
- When a loot effect replaces a card, does honor change hands?
- Does an empowered draw work on relics, traits and monsters as well as companions?
- After an empowered draw, what happens to the cards you did not take?
- If you cannot pay a cost from your own influence, must you recover cubes from the board?
Turn Actions
- Can you choose the same turn action two turns in a row?
- Can you activate both your character and a companion in the same turn?
- What do you gain for activating your own character?
- Must you move each turn, or can you use the other actions instead?
- Do you pay influence to activate a companion, and is activating your own character free?
- Can resting augment influence to conviction, or only potential to influence?
Bonus Actions
- Can you dilute conviction into influence as many times as you like in one turn?
- How many times can you recover influence in one turn, and in what order?
- If you recover influence from a companion, must you take all of it, and what happens to the companion?
- Can you take as many bonus actions as you want in one turn?
- Can you use bonus actions at any time, even on other players' turns?
- Can you move a pet to a new companion at any time during your turn?
- Do loot and treachery cards need the Activate action, or can you use several per turn?
- Can you recover influence after a monster fight, before its bonus die resolves?
- Can you take bonus actions at any point in your turn, mixed in with the main actions?
Movement
- Can you double back or return to a space you already visited during a move?
- Can you end your turn on the space where you started it?
- Can you split your movement, moving again after a visit in the same turn?
- Can you upgrade your mount more than once in one turn at the Command Post?
- If you upgrade your mount several times in one turn, do you get the honor for each speed level?
- When you move past several open spaces, when do you reveal the region tiles?
- How many tiles do you draw when discovering new regions after a move?
- When you move, do you step from triangle to triangle, or can you jump between tiles?
- Does visiting a region move you onto it, and does it change your movement count?
- Can you jump between starting triangles, or between non-adjacent coast spaces, to save movement?
- Can you move onto a starting space?
Visiting Regions
- Can you use the Command Post more than once in a turn?
- How do region symbols show how often an action can be repeated?
- Can the Monastery be used more than once in one visit?
- Does recharging relics at the Arcane Tower cost extra vision?
- Can you gain fewer attributes than a region lists?
- Can you keep visiting the same Inn each turn to gain a companion every turn?
- Can the Shrine return influence from two different companions in one use?
- Can you visit a Monastery, Command Post or Shrine for zero attributes, since they are the listed exceptions?
- At the Academy, do you still gain the attribute if you already have cubes of it, and when is the die rolled again?
- At the Academy, can you roll the attribute die a third time if the second roll is also an attribute you lack?
- Does the Academy's extra roll also apply to monster or relic rolls?
Controlling Regions
- Can you control the Academy tile, and does it give 2 honor even though its tile lacks the honor number?
- Can a player control a Building Site tile or the Tuuk-Tuuk tile?
- Do you have to visit a region to control it, and can you control a region without visiting it?
- Can you take control before or after using a region's action, and can you claim and visit in the same turn?
- Can you gain control of a region if you cannot pay the cost of its action?
- Can you take control of more than one region in a single turn?
- Do you gain honor when another player visits a region you control, including when they repeat region actions?
- Do you gain honor for taking over a region another player controls, and does the previous owner lose anything?
- Do you lose honor when you lose control of a region, or when you recover your cube from it?
- Can you recover your own influence from a region and then retake control for the 2 honor?
- If you recover your influence cube from a region you control, do you keep control?
- What does occupied mean for a region when a companion makes taking it over cheaper?
- Can you spend one conviction to knock out an opponent's region without spending the second to take control?
- Does Oneth, of the Folded Leaf's passive stop other players controlling your regions while you are adjacent to any one of them?
The Power Board
- Where do cubes go after you spend them, such as conviction on an empowered draw, or when an effect returns them?
- When you gain conviction or attributes, do you move cubes from potential or from influence?
- Can you dilute influence back into potential during play?
- Can you convert common attributes to heroic attributes, and when?
Companions
- When Dealmaker Gha-Kein removes a card from the game, do you lose that card's honor first?
- Does Ruak's ability to roll only the white die apply when fighting Ronak?
- How much does Beast Mistress Veroa reduce the cost of upgrading your mount, and do you need to visit the Command Post?
- Can Veroa's mount upgrade be used more than once a turn with the Command Post?
- Can Xina, Pithy Mage, visit the same region twice in one turn with her dilute ability?
- Does Zho gain two inspiration when activated next to two holy spires?
- How does companion loyalty work when you keep activating the same companion?
- Does a companion leave your party once all its influence is removed, such as after a shrine use?
- Are the attribute gains from activating a companion mandatory? Can you take fewer, or none?
- What is the order of steps when activating a companion?
- When can a companion's special ability be used after it is activated, such as Toule's or Feth's adjacency effect?
- Can you activate more than one companion, or the same companion twice, in one turn?
- Is activating a companion free, like activating your own character?
- Which companion abilities work without the companion being activated, and what does 'passive' mean?
- Is Zinh's block on honor gain from visiting enemy regions persistent, or must you activate him each turn?
- Does Oneth's protection cover all of your regions when you are adjacent to just one of them, and is it passive?
- Can Ga'nock's re-roll power be used on every roll, including the second roll gained from an attribute and both dice in a monster fight?
- How does Belac's bonus augmentation at a monastery work alongside paid augmentations?
- Can Dahlia return 2 influence to your sphere and augment in the same activation once 2 influence is on her?
- Can One-Shot Dara move one influence to your influence sphere and one to conviction on the second cube?
- Is the Trader Elyas and Xan activation loop a valid use of the rules?
- Can other players use your yellow companion's abilities or influence while The Zharyan Sisters are in play?
- How do Spotlight Enchantress and Spotlight Hotshot work when they say gain 1 attribute if you have none?
- Does Red Companion #1 (the Beast Master) never die or get exhausted when fighting monsters?
- Does Bracca the Tactical change where the Shrine's influence from companions goes?
- If Adren gives honor when you gain control of one or more regions, can you gain control of more than one region in a turn?
- Can Tik-Tik's ability be used after you visit a location later in the turn?
- For Kuvot the Mind Thief's gain-a-proficiency ability, does adjacent mean adjacent on the board?
- Can the forfeit keyword be used on another player's companion?
- Do you lose the honor of a companion sent on an Odyssey if the game ends before it returns?
- Can a loose spirit pet be sent on an Odyssey?
- Does a companion with its exotic pet attached take longer on the exotic-pet Odyssey?
- Where do influence cubes go when you gain attributes from activating a companion?
- What does 'while active' mean on pet cards such as the Invisible Pack?
- Do you gain attributes from a companion's ability as a Scroll of Boundless Learning does, and do you also get the companion's power?
Traits
- Does a passive trait bonus pay out if its condition was met earlier in the turn?
- Does Diligence's effect trigger from itself when you acquire it?
- Does Preparation's extra honor apply to the card you buy with it?
- Does the Wonder trait give companion attribute cubes in addition to or instead of the normal ones?
- Do the Treachery trait cards (Deception, Greed, Hubris) take influence cubes?
- Does the Patience trait make you skip your whole turn, including the required move and any bonus actions?
- When Impunity doubles the cost of taking control of a region, is the whole cost doubled or only the removal payment?
- Is Humility's augment mandatory when a player with more honor gains honor?
- Does the Resilience trait require adding influence to a companion once it has 4 influence?
- Can a treachery trait such as Greed be used more than once per turn?
- Which traits can be used more than once in one turn?
- Does using a trait cost influence, and when can a passive trait be used?
- Can Deception take control of a region without visiting it this turn?
- What does the Inner Peace promo trait give when you activate with it?
- Can you activate Hubris when no player is adjacent to you?
- What does the Diligence trait do?
- Does visiting the Arcane Tower count as a separate honor source for Persistence?
Relics
- When visiting the Arcane Tower, do you pay twice to gain a relic and recharge your relics, and can you do both on one visit?
- Do you need to buy a relic to recharge your relics at the Arcane Tower, and do you pay 2 Vision to visit only to recharge?
- How much influence does a relic hold, and how does recharging add to it?
- Can a relic hold more than 3 influence charges?
- Can a relic's colon-marked ability be used more than once per turn, and can you use several relics in one turn?
- How many times per turn can you visit the Arcane Tower?
- What does the Mirror of Alternate Realities relic do?
- Does the Inkwell of Nature's Scribe work only while its companion is activated?
- Is the Armguards relic's +1 speed permanent, and does removing its influence reduce speed?
- Does the Ethereal keyword on the Ceremonial Altar Knife relic add any game effect?
- Do cursed (treachery) relics count toward relic secret quests and toward mastery?
- How does Conviction Siphon's use of another player's conviction work?
- Do you lose the honor from a Time-Bending Elixir when you discard it for its conviction-based effect?
- Can Boots of Mad Dashing be used to move yourself as well as the other players?
- Does Boots of Mad Dashing move 4 spaces in total or 4 spaces for each player?
- Can Taker of Stars be used to remove end-game triggers until only two remain?
- Can the Timeworn Mask of the Invader take control of a region you have not visited?
Monsters
- Can you spend conviction to stop your champion or a companion from dying in a monster fight?
- Does the black cube placed on a companion when fighting a monster make that companion a permanent champion, and is it returned after the fight?
- Can you fight more than one monster in a turn at the Gaping Maw or with the courage fight location?
- Can you fight a monster if you have no companions in your party?
- If you must pay fatigue influence after a monster fight but have none left, or the champion lacks influence, where does it come from?
- Do you lose the honor on a card that is forfeited or destroyed to a monster such as Sunbane or the Skittering Maw?
- When fighting Maku, do all your companions roll the die, and do fatigue results apply to each?
- What does the orange face on the new monster die mean?
- How many honor does Sula, Mutated Pond Thrasher give at game end when she has no speed upgrades?
Secret Quests
Vindication
Proficiency and Mastery Tiles
- How do proficiency tiles count toward end-game Mastery?
- Does a proficiency tile count as a relic for Vish'ne, Warden of the Crags?
- Where do you place a mastery tile in solo mode?
- Can you take several proficiency tiles over several turns to rush an end game trigger?
- Does owning a Strength proficiency count toward the red mastery majority without any red cards?
- Do proficiency tiles count as cards for the end-game balance trigger that needs one card of every color?
- After solo adventure 1, do you lose honor for mastery tiles you did not earn, even if they were never put on the track?
Ending the Game
- If an end-game trigger is removed or its condition undone after it fires, does the game still end?
- Are unclaimed end-game trigger tokens scored during final scoring?
- If a card is removed from play, does it still count for end-game triggers or monster bonuses?
- What happens when a player reaches a trigger token on the scoring track?
- What breaks a tie between players at the end of the game?
- Does the All-In end-game trigger fire as soon as a player has no blocks on their board, or only at the end of their turn?
- What does the 'four more regions than all other players' end-game trigger require?
- Does the point track wrap around after 90, and how do you mark more than 90 points?
- In the solo game, where does the game-end marker start, and when does the game end?
Expanded Content
- Can a companion have more than one pet?
- Is moving a pet to a new master a bonus action, and can you do it more than once a turn?
- How many potential can the Shonah, the Gilded Claw pet augment in one turn?
- Can Neeko the Playful use relics belonging to several players in one turn?
- What does active mean for a pet's ability, such as one that says while that companion is active?
- If you attach a new pet to a companion that is already active this turn, does its ability work immediately?
- Does Kajek's pet stop other players from gaining honor on every turn, or only on your turn?
- How do you move a pet to another companion, and how often can you do it?
Expansion Regions
- What can you do when you visit the Jewelcrafter tile?
- Can you move and then use a Sacred Stone tile to teleport in the same turn, and in which order?
- How do you build on a Building Site tile?
- When you add expansion region tiles, which base tiles must you remove?
- Can an infused gemstone substitute for a normal attribute, and how often?
- Do you need to visit the Jewelcrafter to create an infused crystal, or can you do it as an extra action?
- How many expansion region tiles can I add, and how do I choose which base tiles to remove?
- Claude's pet ability differs between the card and the rulebook (p.28). Which one is correct?
- Does building on a Building Site also let you visit the new region?
- How do the Sacred Stones teleport work when you control zero, one, or two stones?
- Which infused crystal do you get when you create one at the Jewelcrafter?
- Can you use an Empowered Draw at the Temple Ruins, and how many cards do you see?
- Can you repeat the Jewelcrafter actions several times on one visit?
- Can an infused crystal be used for conversion to heroic attributes, or to build a monument?
- Can two players both obtain the same Infused Crystal from the Jewelcrafter?
Treachery Expansion
- How many times per turn can a treachery ability that costs honor, such as Hubris or Greed, be used?
- For treachery effects, what counts as adjacent to a player?
- How does a cursed pet such as Bog Breather get attached, and when is its attribute check made?
- Are Treachery cards part of the base game?
- Can you use the Conviction Siphon relic to spend another player's conviction?
- Do Treachery cards count toward mastery at the end of the game?
Guilds & Monuments Expansion
- Can you use infused crystals when you build a Guild Monument?
- How do you use a Guild Favor token to roll a die twice?
- How many proficiency tiles does a Guild Monument need, and can they be the same type?
- Can you build a Guild Monument on a region you share with another player, or on a space holding another player's monument?
- What does the guild monument miniature do?
- Can you build the same Guild Monument more than once in a game?
- Can you build a Guild Monument in a single turn by contributing everything at once?
- Can Kuvot, The Mind Thief, steal a proficiency from an incomplete Monument?
- Does the guild favor token add an extra action each turn, and can it stay where it is?
- Can a guild favor token give a second use without moving, such as a second Commendation or Barricade?
- Can you repeat the same guild favor action on consecutive turns by moving the token?
- Does a guild favor token on a companion with no influence on it give a free activation?
- When your guild favor token is on an opponent's region, who splits the honor when the region is visited?
- Are attributes and proficiencies put into an incomplete Guild Monument locked, and do they count at game end?
- Does a Guild Favor token give honor when another player passes or lands on it?
- When Destiny's Fate applies, do you reroll both the attack die and the attribute die?
- What does it mean to fortify a region?
- Must your guild favor token be adjacent to you when you place it?
- When you build a monument, do you keep the proficiency tiles used?
- What are the triangle pieces for?
Myths & Wonders Expansion
- What resets when all your companions are killed in Ronak's event, and where do the Myths & Wonders blocks go?
- When visiting Tuuk-Tuuk, does 'gain 1 of any attribute you don't already have' give one attribute or one of each missing attribute?
- Can you use Relics and Traits during the Ronak battle?
- Where do the blocks from the Myths & Wonders board go when Tuuk-Tuuk returns?
- During the Ronak fight, does the 'generate attributes' action require spending influence to activate a companion?
- Can the game end without anyone provoking Ronak?
- Is Ronak counted as a monster for card effects during the boss fight?
- After fighting Ronak, must you gain the attribute shown on the rolled die?
Game Components
General
- Can you mix promo cards freely into the base game?
- Which cards are incompatible with solo mode?
- What do you do when you draw a card you already have, such as a second copy from alternate-art promos?
- Do you lose the honor of a card that is forfeited?
- Do you lose a card's honor when you discard or swap it away, and gain the honor of the card you receive?
- Can you play the solo mode with only the base game?
- Can you use expansion content with the official solo adventures?
- Does Claude make empowered draws free?
- Do you gain honor when you swap your Dream or Nightmare for another one?
- Are triggered abilities such as trait or treachery effects mandatory?
- Can you have more than one companion on the Odyssey at a time?
- On an Odyssey, must you have enough influence to fill every required slot before sending a companion?
- Does the influence on a companion stay on it when the companion goes on an Odyssey and returns?
- Can Rampage's extra turn chain into more extra turns for Ronak?
- In Solo 2, can you light a Spirit Fire only where the standee is next to three free regions?
- Does Tik-Tik the Gleaming count as a companion in Solo Adventure 2?
- Where is the Tik-Tik card, which is missing from the component list?
Vindication: Leaders & AlliancesExpansion
- With the Leaders monument variant, can you take control of regions adjacent to a monument?
- What does the yellow starburst on the monster die mean?
- Can the Leaders & Alliances dice replace the original dice in multiplayer, and does mixing them break balance?
- At the Academy with the new white die, do you roll again when you get an attribute you lack?
- Do the solo rules in the downloaded PDF or in the printed Leaders & Alliances rulebook apply?
- When Ronak rolls doubles in the solo adventure, does he still destroy the region he occupies even though the cheat sheet omits it?
- Can multiple players hold rapport tokens on the same leader, and can a rapport token be moved to another leader?
- Is the rapport threshold shared, so that all players place a rapport token when the first player crosses it?
- Are the threshold markers removed from the honor track once a player crosses them?
- After forming an alliance, can your remaining rapport token go to any leader?
- How do you set up the cubes and scoring disc in the Leaders & Alliances solo adventure, since the Journey Cards are not used?
- Do the Leaders & Alliances white dice replace the original white die everywhere the game rolls one, including the Academy?
- Must you use the Leaders & Alliances alternate dice or the monument variant in the base game?
- Can Martial Occupation be used to take a region from another player, and how much conviction does that cost?
- Can a gemstone be used to raise your rapport with a guild leader in Leaders & Alliances?
- How do you place your remaining rapport markers on other guild leaders in Leaders & Alliances?
- Must Xon's return-2-influence cost be paid in full, and must both influence come from opponents to gain conviction?
- Are the five player characters different in the base game?
- In the Solo 1 and Solo 2 setup, do you use only the starting basic tiles and no other expansion cards?
- Can you initiate an Alliance using rapport with only one leader?
- Where does the conviction from Leading with Logic come from?
- Can Martial Occupation co-control a region that is fortified?
- Can you use a guild bonus action from gaining Rapport and another guild action in the same turn?
- When you gain or co-control a region with Martial Occupation, do you gain the 2 honor for control?
- Is honor the only benefit of an alliance, and can you still use that guild's perks afterward?
- Can two players have rapport markers on the same slot of a Leaders & Alliances rapport track?
- In Solo Adventure One, must you activate your hero each round to remove defilement with Tik-Tik?
- In Solo Adventure One, when both black dice roll doubles, do their effects stack?
- In Solo Adventure One, if a Fatigue result requires adding influence and you have none to add, what happens?
- In Solo Adventure One, is augmenting a power mandatory when resting?
- Is honor lost when companions are removed by Ronak's Shriek, fatigue or death?
- Can you use any attribute to gain rapport with any guild leader?
- What happens when you pass the rapport marker on the Honor track?
- Does Voanna's visit let you take control of any region on the map, ignoring adjacency?
Vindication: ChroniclesExpansion
- Does the Curio Shoppe let you gain loot repeatedly in one turn, and is there a limit on using loot cards you already hold?
- Can the Curio Shoppe be fortified?
- Can you use Chronicles content in solo play?
- Do you gain 3 or 1 honor when a checkmark goes onto a Legendary Title track that is already full?
- Can the Chronicles expansion be played with the official solo adventures?
- Which base tiles should you remove when adding the Curio Shoppe for Chronicles?
- Are completed event slots refilled during the turn or after it?
- Does the control granted by Event 20 come from a conviction cube?
- What can crystal tokens do without the Jewelcrafter tile?
- Should the Chronicle decks be shuffled during setup, or stacked as the setup text suggests?
- Is the Curio Shoppe an optional tile in the base game?
- How does the Dreamwood tile work on a Village or Hamlet board?
Vindication: Villages & HamletsExpansion
- How do you get back from the Forgotten Isle to the main board?
- Is the Farm tile repeatable within one visit like the Monastery?
- Does placing a potential on a companion with the Rune of Ingenuity activate that companion?
- Can the Mercenary from the Mercenary's Camp move, visit and take control like your character?