Xia: Legends of a Drift System FAQ
327 questions players ask · Updated Nov 7, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup & Overview
- Can you buy more than one Fame Point per Business Phase with Wealth?
- When are Fame Points claimed: immediately or in the Status Phase?
- Does a natural 20 on an event roll earn me the Luck Fame Point?
- How do you settle rules disputes and ties, such as two players claiming the same Title?
- Can Xia be played with two players?
- Can you play Xia solo with only the base game components?
- Do the NPC ships get color tokens in setup?
- Can I win by buying a ship as my last Fame Point?
- How is the starting sector layout set up, and who chooses the edge symbols?
- How do I combine the base game, Embers and Missions and Powers components, and which exploration tokens do I use?
- Who takes the First Player token?
- How many credits do you start the game with?
- Are all players' ships on the board before the first player's turn?
- Do base-game exploration tokens ever show numbers such as 1, 2 or 3?
- What is a spawn point on a sector tile?
- What if a starting sector tile has no spawn point?
- When are Title cards drawn after a player's Fame Point marker reaches a purple space?
- Can players give credits to each other, and when?
Player Turn & Actions
- Can you take the same Business Phase action more than once, such as buying several ships or Fame Points?
- Does a non-minor action end my remaining movement?
- Does a blind jump cost extra movement?
- Where do my Armed Markers go at the end of my turn, and how do they come back?
- Do armed markers re-arm for free when you end on a planet, and does it cost energy?
- Can I re-arm for free on a planet while defending someone else's attack?
- Does my turn end automatically when I run out of armed markers?
- What is energy spent on?
- Can you sell outfits and mods, and for how much?
- Can you excavate a relic when your ship has no free cargo space for it?
- Can you jettison cargo during the business phase to make room for an outfit?
- Can you move without engines?
- Can a ship repeat a mine, harvest, salvage or quarry action by moving in and out of the hazard space?
- Do shields recharge after mining or harvesting?
- Can I use a buy, sell or mission space that another ship is sitting on?
- Do buying, selling, mining and salvaging cost armed markers or energy?
- Can you activate several armed tokens on one engine for a single action and combine the rolls?
- Is delivering goods for an event (such as Humanitarian Aid) at a mission point a major or minor action?
- Is completing a mission or its objective a major action?
- Can I keep harvesting with Eco-Core until I roll a natural 20?
Ships & Bounty
- Do you get money when you sell or trade in your old ship after buying a higher tier?
- Why do Tier 1 ships have a purchase price when they can never be bought?
- Can I buy a ship of my current tier, a lower tier, or a Tier 1 ship?
- Does buying a new ship remove my bounty?
- Can a ship that another player upgraded away from be bought by someone else?
- Can I buy a new ship while my current ship is damaged?
- Do I become an outlaw by attacking an innocent ship?
- How do I get rid of a bounty?
- How much bounty do I get for destroying an Innocent ship?
- Do I get a bounty for attacking an NPC?
- Can an outlaw collect bounties by destroying other ships that carry a bounty?
- Does a ship's bounty end when it is destroyed?
- How often can a ship's special ability be used?
- Can Swamp Rat's Over-Surge be used in the same action as an attack?
- How long does the Nightshade's Replication Token stay on a copied ability?
- When Nightshade copies another ship's power with Replication Drive, whose Replication token does it use?
- Can the Manchester's jettison-cargo ability prevent ramming damage?
- Which tier 1 miniature does the Long Haul Shuttle Bay use?
- How does the Long Haul shuttle's double action work?
- What can I do with Auto Pilot movement, and does it work after my own turn?
- When does Ghoststalker's Disruptor Field roll happen relative to moving through planetary shields?
- Can the Vagabond's Batea Grid mine from any hex in a sector?
- Can Numerator's Afterburner move you farther than your engine maximum?
- Can Gaiden's Evasive Thrusters prevent damage outside combat, and can they prevent energy loss?
- After attaching to a host with Mag-Harpoon, must your ship follow the host into the space it vacates?
- Can I use the Mag-Harpoon during another player's turn if it is once per round?
- Can Tac-X re-roll a failed Salvage roll or a Debris Field entry roll?
- When does the Sentry Gun fire and how many shots does it get?
- Must a Sentry Gun attack target the player or NPC whose turn it interrupts?
- Can shields block Shockwave or the Particle Ray Beam?
Outfits & Mods
- Can you buy two or more of the same outfit for one ship?
- Can one GTS outfit benefit two engines at once?
- Can an outfit or armor plating extend past the printed outline of the ship mat?
- When you damage a weapon or shield using two markers in one attack, is it one roll or separate rolls, and how is damage applied?
- Can you add or rearrange outfits on a hold space that has a damage marker?
- What can go on an outfit's use space, and what happens if it is damaged?
- If an outfit has one damage marker and you activate it with two markers, is the penalty -1 or -2?
- Can you sell and rebuy Tier 1 outfits freely to change your loadout?
- Where can damage markers go on an outfit and what do they do?
- Can I keep an outfit I cannot fit on my ship for later?
- Can cargo cubes be stored on outfits?
- Does an Enviro-Shield stop damage from planetary shields or debris fields?
- How many times can an outfit be used in a turn?
- Can you use the same engine twice in one action to add the movement together?
- Does damage placed by Oversurge count as taking damage?
- Do engine movement modifiers count toward ramming speed?
- Can the Pyrion Rail Gun hit NPC ships that have no outfits?
- Do multiple Shield Piercers stack on a combined blaster attack?
- How does a Piercer apply when a defender activates several shield dice?
- Can I put two mods on the same outfit so their effects stack?
- When an outfit has damage and a mod bonus, is the cap applied before or after the damage is subtracted?
- How much does an Enviro-Shield block when its outfit is damaged?
Combat, Shields & Death
- Can you combine a missile and a blaster in one attack?
- Can I combine a ram with blaster fire in one attack?
- When I combine a Blaster attack with Ramming, how much ramming damage do I take back?
- Do I earn the Viking title if a combined ram-and-blaster attack destroys the target?
- If you ram an enemy ship across a nebula border, do you roll for nebula energy loss and do the ships move?
- If both ships are destroyed in a ramming attack, does the attacker get Fame, bounty or the Raider title?
- How does damage on an outfit change its rolls, and does adding more Armed Markers also reduce it?
- When Over-Surge is combined with normal uses of the same outfit, does its damage penalty apply to every roll?
- Can one outfit space serve both a normal attack and an Over-Surge in the same combined attack to get an extra roll?
- Can shields, Evasive Thrusters or an Environmental Shield stop planetary shield damage?
- Can shields block damage from NPC or ship gun special abilities?
- Can shields block the energy loss from EMP Burst?
- Does nebula energy loss turn into damage when shields block it?
- Do Blasters have range 0 to 1, or exactly range 1?
- Can a Blaster attack a ship sitting in an asteroid or debris field next to it?
- Can you attack a ship that is on a planet or inside a planetary shield?
- How many shield dice do I roll if I spend several Armed Markers on a Shield?
- Can a single Attack Action hit more than one ship?
- How much does it cost to re-arm shield markers, and can I do it when attacked on another player's turn?
- When does the defender declare shields against an ability attack that rolls a d20 first?
- Can I defend with Shields if I spent all my Armed Markers on my own turn?
- Can a ship ability be used to reroll the respawn location after your ship is destroyed?
- Do I lose Fame Points when my ship is destroyed?
- Does destroying my ship cost me my next turn under the expansion rules?
- When a Tier II or III ship dies, do I choose new ability cards or discard old ones?
- Can I attack again in the same turn if the defender survives?
- If I attack with two blasters at the same target, are they one attack or two?
- Can a Stranded ship keep harvesting in a nebula when it is out of energy?
- Can an 'As an action' power be combined with an attack action in one action?
Movement, Gates & Board
- How do occupied spaces work: can you stop on one, act from it, and what does it cost?
- Are ships separated by a planetary shield adjacent, and can you use an occupied space across one?
- Can you spend several Armed Markers on Engines (or an Engine plus Impulse) in one Move action?
- Can I scan or blind jump from inside a planetary shield?
- If you spend your last Armed Marker at zero Energy, are you Stranded and do you lose the move in progress?
- If a ship clears the first planetary shield but fails the roll for the second, does it move at all?
- Can you jump to or use the Tigris Gate as a destination?
- Do I keep my remaining movement after passing through a gate?
- How many Fame Points do the gates give?
- Can you tow the Derelict Hulk through an asteroid field?
- Who takes damage from the Variable Star event, and does a planet protect me?
- Can I deliberately move my ship into a star?
- Do I have to jump through a gate I land on, and what does it cost?
- Do planetary shields and entrances block line of sight, adjacency, or both?
- Do I roll for a border before or after moving across it?
- Do I roll to enter a mining space or gain cubes just by passing through?
- If my ship is destroyed crossing a hazardous border, where does the cargo go?
- Does a comet destroy ships along its path?
- What happens if I move or blind jump onto a comet's space?
- Can an Outlaw ship enter a Lawful planet through its entrance?
- Does an Outlaw gain more bounty by using an Outlaw planet's entrance?
- Can an Innocent ship cross an Outlaw planet's shield without becoming an Outlaw?
- Does crossing a planetary shield with a roll of 11-17 add bounty on any planet?
- What happens if a gravity path runs off the edge when no sector tiles are left?
- Can I collect jettisoned cubes in an occupied space as I fly past?
- What happens when you roll on a planetary shield?
- Do planetary shields apply when leaving a planet too?
- Are exploration tokens replaced once they have been collected?
- Which borders block line of sight, and does a border running along the line matter?
- Which edge symbols must match when placing a new sector tile?
- What happens if you blind jump onto a planet's space?
- Can you attack through a warp gate?
- Do you have to be on the marked space to mine, excavate, salvage or harvest?
Cargo, Credits & Economy
- What do I have to sell to earn the Fame Point for selling cargo?
- Do you gain FP for selling cargo at an outlaw planet or any planet, and how many per turn?
- Can you pick up cargo you jettisoned earlier in the same turn?
- What happens to the cargo I salvaged if my ship is destroyed?
- When you buy from Smuggler's Den, do the cubes come off the Economy Board?
- Can you buy cargo cubes when only one hold space is empty?
- Can I buy just one cargo cube from a buy space?
- Where do bought cubes come from, and can I buy a single cube?
Missions & Titles
- Can I discard my active mission to draw new ones?
- Can you draw new missions after completing one, or redraw after declining?
- With two Mission Computers, can you have several missions face up at once?
- Can I turn in a mission and draw a new one on the same mission point in the same turn?
- Can I start or reveal a mission whose start or destination sector has not been revealed yet?
- Where exactly do you pick up and deliver a mission?
- When is a chosen Assassination mission revealed if its target dies on another player's turn?
- What do I need for an Arms Dealer mission, and can I keep the extra mod?
- Can I claim a title after buying Fame, so the title wins me the game?
- Does the Experience reroll need a completed mission of the same type?
- How do I count the shortest flyable distance for a Shuttle mission?
- Does smuggling the Smuggler mission roll the sneak check when you enter the planet or only at the mission point?
- Do you need a standard action to reveal a Cargo or Arms Dealer mission once you have the goods?
- If I hold several Bounty Hunter missions, for example with an M-Comp, does destroying one outlaw ship complete all of them?
- Is a failed mission discarded, and do you still get a Fame Point?
- How often can the Infestation card pass to another ship, and who chooses?
- Does the Thief mission take cargo from the target ship, and can I rob outside the mission?
- Does a Thief mission work on a ship hiding in an asteroid field?
- Does completing an outlaw mission make you an outlaw or add bounty?
- Does the Menace title count if shields block all the damage to my targets, and do rams or special weapons count as attacks?
- Does completing a Captain In Need mission count toward the Veteran experience?
- How do you complete a Captain In Need mission from an exploration token?
- How do passengers and pickups work on a Shuttle mission?
- Should completed missions be placed face down?
- If I destroy a player, do I get the payment sitting on their mission card?
- Can I claim the Reckless title if my ship dies on my third blind jump?
- Can an Innocent ship accept an Outlaw mission?
- Do you get Fame for destroying a ship and also for the title that needs it?
- Do you need to be adjacent to give credits for the Generous title, and who wins ties?
- Can you give energy to a player who is not stranded to earn a Fame Point?
- When can a revealed title be claimed, and does earlier progress count?
- When can a title be claimed, and who gets it first?
Non-Player Characters
- Where and when does a destroyed NPC respawn, and does it come back with damage?
- When does an NPC first spawn, and where if the spawn point is occupied?
- Does a player get a Fame Point when a die roll of 20 happens during an NPC's check?
- Do Enforcers and Scoundrels need line of sight to target a ship?
- Do Enforcers and Scoundrels remember where they were heading on earlier turns?
- When and where does the Merchant first spawn, and does it start with 1,000 cR?
- Where does the Enforcer go with no target, between two equally distant Lawful planets?
- Can the Enforcer enter an Outlaw planet, and does it get a bounty for it?
- How does an Enforcer or other NPC choose the nearest target when hazards are in the way?
- How far can the Scoundrel look for a target?
- Does a Merchant NPC stop when it reaches its target?
- Does a Merchant NPC that acts from an adjacent occupied space still need to spend 2 movement?
- How does an NPC route when the direct path is blocked, and will it cross asteroids or planetary shields?
- Can an NPC get stuck when hazards and unexplored space surround it?
- When an NPC destroys another ship in solo, what happens to the credits on the destroyed ship's card?
- How much bounty does a player gain for destroying an Enforcer or a Merchant in solo?
- Does the solo rule that gives a bounty for entering an outlaw planet apply to the Scoundrel?
- When an NPC moves to a planet, does it stop outside or inside the shield?
- Can NPC ships repair their damage?
- Do NPCs attack each other in multiplayer?
- Can the Scoundrel enter a lawful planet?
- Will an NPC move past its target to get line of sight and attack?
- In a two-player game, does one player control two NPCs?
- Can NPCs use shields against non-combat damage and planetary shields?
- What tier are NPC ships, and how many Fame Points do I get for destroying one?
- Will NPCs break through a Lawful planet's shield, such as the Scoundrel chasing me?
- Does an NPC Enforcer re-route mid-move if an outlaw ship comes into range?
- What does an NPC do when its target is in a space it cannot attack, such as an asteroid field?
- How many dice does the Scoundrel roll when it is attacked with several dice?
- How is the Enforcer's most distant lawful planet measured?
- When does Auto-Pilot happen relative to an NPC's turn?
- Does the Scoundrel have a bounty?
- When a destroyed Merchant respawns, does it keep its previous destination?
Xia: Embers of a Forsaken StarExpansion
- Do I need the Embers modules to play the solo rules, or does the base game alone work?
- Can the Embers solo campaign rules be used with two players?
- Do edge symbols have to match when you explore into a new sector during solo setup?
- How do I combine the solo setup steps with the Embers setup steps?
- In solo setup, do I deal myself NPC cards, and do I need the base NPC cards?
- In solo, do the behavior cards replace the NPC's normal behavior?
- Does a solo NPC retaliate against the player who attacked it?
- What does a solo NPC do when it has no valid target?
- Which ships do the solo Enforcer and Scoundrel behaviors target?
- Will the Enforcer chase the Scoundrel when you have no bounty in a solo game?
- Can a solo NPC target you from any distance, and will the Scoundrel enter a lawful planet?
- In solo, which credits raise the NPCs' end-of-round Fame Point roll?
- Do you roll the NPC score die at end of round if no NPC is in play?
- Does a natural 20 on the NPC end-of-round roll give NPCs a bonus Fame Point?
- Do NPCs get a Fame Point for destroying another NPC or Cinder-Beard in solo?
- When I destroy a solo NPC, what do I collect?
- How does Cinder-Beard move and fight in a solo game?
- How many Fame Points do you get for destroying Cinder-Beard?
- Are the two dice of the Scoundrel's 2d12 attack added or rolled as separate attacks?
- What does the Merchant Collector behavior do with the cargo it buys in solo?
- What does the solo Market Manipulator Merchant do when it is already on its buy space?
- Will the Scoundrel follow you into the Kiln, and can the Enforcer attack you there?
- In solo, does the Enforcer stay parked at Loath if nobody enters it?
- Can NPCs enter The Kiln?
- How is the solo campaign score calculated when you lose or miss a goal?
- In solo, when are new Titles and Events revealed if an NPC takes the lead?
- When does an event with a multi-round timer tick down?
- Which NPCs can gain bounty, and does the Merchant gain it entering outlaw planets?
- Does the Scoundrel gain bounty when it destroys an innocent ship in a solo game?
- In solo play, in what order do the NPCs take their turns?
- Do NPCs count as players in solo mode (Lone Drifter, Socialist Merchants)?
- Do NPCs respawn with damage equal to their tier?
- Can you take a solo Assassin mission before any NPC is in play, and who counts as a kill?
- What happens when The Kiln's orbit runs into the Rikishi comet?
- Does a ship get destroyed when it moves onto a space where a Comet currently sits?
- Does regular damage stop ice damage from spreading?
- Can Shields block ice damage?
- Does an NPC crossing an ice asteroid field take ice damage, and can its shields absorb it?
- After docking with The Kiln and taking its d6 ride, can you keep moving with the same movement pool?
- Can Slow Leak's Shockwave push ships docked in The Kiln, or The Kiln itself?
- Can you buy the last single cargo cube on the Economy Board?
- Can Mods be bought on any planet, or only at the Space Station?
- When you sift relic tokens, do you resolve one per Sift action or several at once?
- When I sift a relic, do I get the Fame Point and the reward?
- Do you earn the Fame Point for an exploration token pair on another player's turn?
- When must I discard my two exploration tokens for Fame or credits?
- Does a gravity path trigger again when you leave and re-enter it, and can you keep moving along it?
- When I move from one gravity path to another in the same sector, do I roll for the new path?
- Can I pick up tokens or cubes while a gravity path is moving me?
- What happens if a gravity path pushes your ship past the end?
- Do NPC ships trigger comets or gravity paths, and what happens if a comet lands on one?
- How much of Rikishi must overlap a planet for it to crash?
- Does Rikishi destroy Relic tokens on a Dead World it crosses?
- If Rikishi covers a planet's Sell space, is that space still on the Merchant's trade route?
- When does Rikishi turn into an ice asteroid?
- Is the Kiln placed on Nyr at setup, and can you slingshot it?
- When I sell cargo, what happens to the Economy Board, and can I buy the result in the same turn?
- When you sell cubes to a planet, how many new cubes does it produce, and what happens above the six-cube limit?
- Can Ember be bought at Smuggler's Den?
- Can I trade cubes at Kei when the Economy Board is full of the good I am giving?
- Does the Economy Board limit how much I can sell?
- Do I keep completed Private Eye missions, and can I use them for Experience?
- Can you take a Business Phase on a Dead World?
- Is repairing ice damage free when the Cold as Ice title triggers?
- How do Wormholes work when the Wormholes event is in play?
- Can you move through a Kiln space without docking?
- Does a Dead World block line of sight?
- Can shields block damage from the Excavate action?
- Does the Kiln count as a planet?
- Is the green fog in The Brink a nebula?
- What counts as towing a Derelict Hulk into the Kiln?
- Can a ship tow the Derelict Hulk through a gate and keep towing it?
- Can I fight while docked at the Kiln?
Xia: Missions and PowersExpansion
- Can Persistent Memory's Mag-Harpoon follow any adjacent ship in a solo game, or only the Merchant?
- Are ship abilities from Missions and Powers optional?
- Can VRX Heatsink be used more than once per turn?
- Does Crypto Lance give a bounty when passing through shields?
- How does Bitter Karma's self-destruct and respawn work?
- What happens to cubes a Transport mission jettisons when the target is an NPC?
- How do the BOOM mission blast, reward and the detonator work?
- After dropping a BOOM detonator, do I get an extra action to escape the blast?
- Does a BOOM detonator pickup reveal the mission to other players?
- Where do ships move under Slow Leak's Graviton Pulse?
- When a Prototype Shield triggers its extra die, which die is the extra one?
- Does Mach Horror's Double Agent lose its passive abilities when you use its action?
- Does Solar Capacitor still arm my weapons after Total Recoil lets me use a weapon as an engine?
- When do I collect a Coerce mission's bounty: on the attack or on completing the mission?
- Is an Assist mission a success if you choose to heal with no damage?
- Does a sector with several features count as each type for mission and title requirements?
- Does Microjump count as flying through asteroid spaces for the Daredevil title?
- What counts as within 1 sector of the star for the Solar Capacitor?
- Can you earn the Deep Space Specialist title, which needs two missions in one turn, without a Mission Computer?
Xia: Legends of a Drift System – SellswordExpansion
- Is the Sellsword an Outlaw before it is hired, and can the Enforcer target it?
- How does the Sellsword move?
- If the Enforcer destroys my hired Sellsword, do I still control it?
- Can another player hire a Sellsword left beside their ship, and from how far?
- Can I attack the Sellsword I control, and do I get fame for its kills?
- Can you claim Bounty Hunter rewards when a hired Sellsword destroys the target, and can the Sellsword complete missions for you?
- Can Opportunist or Corrupt NPC behaviors target a hired Sellsword instead of the player's ship?
- Where does the Sellsword spawn?
- Do I choose whether the Sell Sword or Void Wasp is an NPC or a player ship?
- Can Replication Drive copy the Void Wasp's RK-5 Blaster ability?