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Lost Ruins of Arnak
#30BGG8.1RATINGHOT #27
Consulted 19 times·Updated Jul 27
1–4
PLAYERS
30–120
MINUTES
3
BEST WITH
2.9
MEDIUM
DESIGNER CLARIFICATIONS18
Idol effect must be resolved immediately, cannot be deferreddesigner
- CONTEXT
- A player wanted to slot a newly obtained idol into their player board before resolving its bonus, in order to use resources generated by the slot effect toward the bonus.
- RULING
- You must resolve an idol's effect immediately when obtained — you may not slot the idol first to gain its slot bonus before taking the idol effect. The rulebook states: "Immediately resolve the idol's effect. You forfeit the benefit otherwise." Designer russ agreed: "(Agreed that the rules pretty clearly imply that you cannot do this.)" ---
Card market row refills at end of the active player's turndesignerpublisher
- CONTEXT
- Thread debated whether the card row refills after each individual purchase or once at the end of the buying player's turn.
- RULING
- "You refill the card row when you end your turn." ---
Gaining a travel icon does not grant the right to explore or defeat a guardiandesignerpublisher
- CONTEXT
- Thread asked whether gaining a travel icon from an artifact or assistant entitled a player to immediately explore a site or defeat a guardian.
- RULING
- "Getting a travel icon does not also give you the right to explore or defeat a guardian. A travel icon is there to cover the cost when you are already entitled to perform such an action." [Elwen: "That is correct."] ---
Guardians are not owned; any player may overcome any guardiandesigner
- RULING
- "In the rules, there is no concept stated or implied of owning a guardian at a site. Merely because you discovered the site does not mean the guardian is somehow 'yours'... If you have a worker at a site with a guardian, then you can overcome the guardian (assuming you have the means to do so)." ---
Cards played during a round do not return to the draw deck mid-rounddesigner
- CONTEXT
- Thread proposed a multi-turn combo loop that relied on played cards cycling back into the draw deck during the same round.
- RULING
- "A card played does not go back to your draw deck." ---
You can always pay 2 gold to substitute for 1 airplane icondesigner
- RULING
- "Yes, as the rules say on page 9 (box 'Hiring a Pilot'), you can always pay 2 gold to have an airplane icon." ---
Card effects resolve in the order they are printeddesignerpublisher
- RULING
- "You always evaluate effects in the order they are printed (keep in mind that some effects are optional and can be skipped, this is the case with Sturdy Boots, Sea Turtle, Ostrich, etc. where you can evaluate only part of the effect)." ---
Optional dig effects on certain cards may be skippeddesignerpublisher
- CONTEXT
- Question was whether you could play Sturdy Boots (or Sea Turtle, Ostrich) to gain the top effect (draw/compass) while skipping the dig/discover effect — either because no worker is available or simply by choice.
- RULING
- "That's correct." — you may take the first effect(s) of Sturdy Boots, Sea Turtle, and Ostrich without being forced to dig or discover a site. ---
Placing site tiles face-down at setup is mechanically equivalentdesigner
- CONTEXT
- Players asked whether pre-placing site tiles face-down at setup (instead of drawing them from the stack upon discovery) was a legal variant.
- RULING
- "Yes you can do that if you prefer, and it will have no effect on gameplay." ---
Free actions may be taken at any point during your turndesigner
- RULING
- "Yes... also explicitly stated in the rulebook (bottom of page 8): 'before, after and even during your main action.'" ---
All beneficial effects are optionaldesigner
- RULING
- "In general, beneficial effects are optional in Arnak. See the list of effects on the last page and note the word 'may' on beneficial effects." ---
Visiting an already-discovered site costs travel only; no compass neededdesigner
- CONTEXT
- Thread asked whether a player could return to a site previously discovered (by any player) and whether the original compass cost applied again.
- RULING
- "You can't discover a site that was already discovered! The site was discovered already. So you follow the rules for visiting an already-discovered site." — pay travel cost only, no compass required, regardless of whether a guardian is still present. ---
Overcoming a guardian requires a separate main action on a different turndesigner
- RULING
- "No, because you do only one main action per turn. So you can overcome a guardian only on some later turn after the turn that you moved to its site." ---
Several main actions do not require moving an explorerdesigner
- CONTEXT
- A player believed that each archaeologist could only ever produce one action per round (since they move only once). russ clarified that many main actions are independent of explorer placement.
- RULING
- "Several main actions do not involve moving an explorer, e.g. buying a card, advancing on the research track, overcoming a guardian." ---
Players may not inspect their own draw deck during playdesigner
- RULING
- ashman: "No. You are not entitled to know which cards is drawn next. Checking the discard pile is fine." russ: "No. Why in the world would you be able to?" ---
AUTHOR: russ (Russ Williams, designer); also ashman (Thomas Staudt, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.comDATE: 2025-03-15Archaeologists must always be placed from your player boarddesigner
- RULING
- "No, see the rules for Dig at a site (p9) and Discover a site (p10). The archeologist comes 'from your player board'." — you cannot move an archaeologist already placed at one site to a different site. ---
Triggered effects may chain into other triggered effectsdesignerpublisher
- CONTEXT
- A player worked through a scenario where playing a card triggered an effect that in turn triggered another card's effect — effectively chaining multiple triggered effects in sequence. Note: the specific scenario in the thread used expansion components, but the underlying rule applies to all triggered effects including those in the base game.
- RULING
- "I can confirm that you came to the right conclusion!" — triggering a card effect that in turn triggers another card's effect is legal; there is no rule preventing chains of triggered effects. ---
"Exile this card to [effect]" means the card exiles itself when playeddesigner
- CONTEXT
- Players were confused about whether "Exile this card to [effect]" required a separate exile mechanism (e.g., an Idol tile or another card) to first exile the card, or whether playing the card caused it to exile itself.
- RULING
- jooice: "each card that says 'exile to' has a trash itself ability and a benefit." EDG_, quoting the rulebook back page: "When you play the card for its effect, it goes to exile instead of your play area." — no external exile source is needed; playing the card for its effect is what sends it to exile. ---
Q&A1
Exiling a card via an external effect does not trigger its "exile to" abilitycommunity high-engagement
- QUESTION
- If a card says "Exile this card to [effect]" and another card or effect (e.g., an Idol tile or Little Monkey) forces the card into exile, does the exiled card's ability trigger?
- ANSWER
- No. You must actively play the card and choose to use its "exile to" ability for the effect to trigger. Being exiled by an external source does not activate it. (vbrett: "You're exiling a card with little monkey, not activating the power of the card you're exiling.") ---
AUTHOR: vbrett (community; designer russ also participated, commenting on the card's wording)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(13 replies)DATE: 2025-01-08
EDGE CASES1
The Ocarina + Sturdy Boots combo is legaldesigner
- SITUATION
- A player plays the Ocarina artifact (which converts all travel icons to airplane icons), then plays Sturdy Boots. The question is whether Sturdy Boots' boot icons now count as airplane icons for the purposes of the Ocarina's effect.
- RULING
- bayerbube: "Yes, legal. That is the beauty of this combo." After playing Ocarina, Sturdy Boots' boot icons count as airplane icons — you receive the compass (Sturdy Boots' first effect) and can use the 2 airplane icons to explore or dig a site.
AUTHOR: bayerbube (ode., designer); jooice (Shir E, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(25 replies)DATE: 2021-05-30
Last researched: 2026-06-09
CATEGORIES
Adventure·Card Game·Exploration·Fantasy
MECHANICS
Area MovementContractsDeck, Bag, and Pool BuildingDelayed PurchaseEnd Game BonusesHand ManagementMulti-Use CardsOnce-Per-Game AbilitiesOpen Drafting
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