Fluxx FAQ

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Many of the most common Frequently Asked Questions are answered on the official Fluxx FAQ page. See also the Monty Python Fluxx FAQ, the Zombie Fluxx FAQ, the Pirate Fluxx FAQ, the Martian Fluxx FAQ, and the Other Fluxx FAQ.

Please add other Questions about Fluxx here, as well as the official or commonly accepted answers to each question.

[edit] Regular Fluxx

Q: The current rules say Draw 1 and Play 2. The player draws Jackpot and plays it for his first play. He draws Draw 4 and two other cards for a total of 4 cards drawn that turn. He then plays Draw 4, which reads “The person who played this card should immediately draw extra cards (if needed) so that they have drawn 4 cards this turn.” Since he HAS drawn 4 cards during that turn, he should not draw an additional 3 (to add to his one card drawn for a Draw X rule), right?
- A: No. The 3 cards drawn for the Jackpot action do not count as official Draws. Neither do cards drawn by other actions, such as Draw 2 and Use 'em and Everybody Gets 1. The player in your scenario should immediately Draw 3 more cards.

Q: If you play the "Trash Something" card, can you choose not to trash something? For example, if you're the only one with Keepers, or the only thing on the table is your opponent's Creeper...can you choose to do nothing?
- A: No, you cannot trash nothing. If you play Trash Something and there's something available to trash, you must discard it.

Q: Poor Bonus says: If one player has fewer Keepers on the table than any other player, that person draws 1 extra card. 1 Keeper is fewer than 2 Keepers... but is 0 Keeper (Remember it says: on the table) fewer than 1 Keeper?
- A: Yes, zero Keepers is fewer than one. If one player has no Keepers in play and all other players have at least 1, the player with nothing is the Poor player.

Q: Suppose I play Draw 2 and Use 'em and the first of the cards I play is Draw 3 Play 2. From the new D3P2 hand, I play Trade Hands. Which of my three hands would I trade -- my D3P2 hand, my D2aU hand, or the original hand with which I began the turn?
- A: You would trade your original hand away -- the one you set aside at the start of the Draw 2 and Use 'em. Whatever you get back would go into a similar dormant location until all of the Action cards are fully processed.

Q: If a player has 7 cards in their hand, and the current rule is to Play 4, they do so, and their final play is to play the Play 3 card. We have always played it that his turn would be over because he has played the maximum number allowed by the rules (3 cards, even though he played a total of 4). My friend is arguing that the text on the card (for the Play 3) says, if you have 3 or less cards, play them all. So, in this case, he would be able to play 4, then because of the rule change play his other 3. Who is right?
- A: Your turn ends immediately if you play Play 3 and you've played 3 or more cards during that during.

Q: How does 10 Cards in Hand work in conjunction with Trade or Rotate Hands? If you and an opponent each have 11 cards in your hand, and you play trade hands, would you win because after the card's effect occurred you had 11 while the opponent had 10, or would the opponent win as soon as the card was played and left your hand?
- A: This is a tricky question. At first it seems like you should need to finish the step you were in the middle of (i.e. follow through with the hand swap), before considering the issue of someone meeting the Goal. However, after due consideration, Andy concluded that we must obey the underlying principle of everything happening instantly in Fluxx. Therefore, you lose the game the moment the 11th card leaves your hand.

Q: What happens if Take Another Turn is played twice in one turn? Based on the wording of the card, it would seem that you still only get one extra turn.
- A: Correct. You can't save up any extra Another Turns.

Q: Can somebody win with 5 Keepers (satisfying that goal card) if a New Rule is in play with a Keeper Limit of less than 5?
- A: Yes, it can be done. Since the Keeper Limit rule only kicks in at the end of a player's turn, you could play several Keepers during your turn, bringing your total to 5 and thus winning, before reaching the end-of-turn moment when you'd need to discard down to the number of Keepers indicated by the Keeper Limit.

Q: Do I have to observe the current Draw rule entirely before I can play any cards?
- A: Yes. (Unless you have a Meta Rule that says otherwise.)

Q: Suppose the Goal is All You Need Is Love, and someone plays an Action which causes all of the Keepers to be shuffled and dealt back out. If someone then gets Love as their first card, do they win immediately, or must they receive whatever other Keepers are headed their way before they can claim victory?
- A: The latter. This is another tricky timing case (similar to the 10 Cards in Hand + Trade | Rotate Hands situation) in which the instant win concept collides with the principle of everything happening immediately. In this case, the Action must be completed first. The best way to play cards like Scramble Keepers or Share the Wealth is to deal everyone their new Keepers face down, with all players then revealing the cards they got all at once.

Q: If Inflation is played as one of the cards during the Action Draw 3, Play 2 of them, does it apply to the Action in progress?
- A: Since everything happens instantly in Fluxx, the card suddenly becomes Draw 4 and Play 3. The player should immediately draw an extra card and add it to the remainder of the cards being chosen from. It's kind of like if you'd only drawn 2 cards instead of the 3 you were supposed to, realizing the mistake after playing one of them, and drawing the extra card you need at that point.

Q: Suppose it's a "Draw 5, Play 1" type of situation and no one plays a Hand Limit nor a multiple Play rule. Eventually everyone has a big hand and the draw pile runs out. The discard pile gets reshuffled and reused, but suppose the situation continues until there are no cards left to be drawn. What happens? Do you just skip the draw phase of your turn till your next turn comes up where you can draw enough cards for the 'draw requirement'? or draw what you can now and proceed to your turn?
- A: Draw what you can and continue. In general, if the rules command you to do something impossible, then you just do as much as you can, and move on. If the rule says Play 3 and you only have 2 cards, then you Play 2 and stop. Similarly, if the rule says Draw 4 and there are only 3 cards for you to draw (even after reshuffling) then you draw 3 cards and proceed with the Play phase.

Q: What happens if you got into the above situation (where the draw and discard piles are empty) and one of those players is perverse enough to play Draw 3, play 2 of them?
- A: You would draw as many as you can and make do with what you have at that point, even if that makes it "Draw 0 Play 2 of them." If you don't get your full value for the card because of the situation, maybe it's not a good idea to play that card at this time. The point is that you would not redraw the Action played as one of the cards for the Action. The Action card does not become part of the discard pile until after the Action has been fully resolved. (I find it helpful to imagine that the Action card hovers in the air above the discard pile while the Action is happening, perhaps spinning slowly in space so that it can be seen by all, then gently settling down onto the discard pile afterwards.)

Q: If the current rules force me to play a card and the only card I have is a goal card that will make another player win the game, do I have to play it or can it be "discarded" and considered a play?
- A: No. You cannot discard a card just because you don't like it; you can discard only when the rules specifically say you can. If you are forced to play a card and you have only one card, then you must play that card.

Q: With Double Agenda in effect, suppose two players simultaneously achieve win conditions. For example, in a 2-player game, Double Agenda is in effect and the goals are Star Gazing and Time is Money. Player A has The Eye and Time in play while Player B has The Cosmos and Money. Player A plays Exchange Keepers and exchanges The Eye for Money. Is the game over, with two winners, or must it continue until one and only one player has a winning condition?
- A: You would keep playing until only one player currently meets the win condition.

Q: What happens when you are required to draw more cards in the middle of performing an Action like Draw 3 Play 2? For example, suppose we just have the Basic Rules and I play Draw 5 as the first of my Draw 3 Play 2 cards. I'd need to immediately Draw more cards, right? So Where do they go? Should I put the extra cards in my original hand or in the side hand I'm using for the "Draw 3 Play 2" card?
- A: New cards would be added to your set-aside hand in this case. Since you'd already drawn 1 new card at the start of your turn, you'd need to Draw 4 more and add them to your set-aside hand. It's OK to look at them as you do -- in fact, it's a good idea, since you'd need to play and redraw any Creepers that came up in those 4 cards. Similarly, if you played Jackpot! you'd add the new cards to your set-aside hand, and if you played Discard and Draw, it would be your set aside hand that you'd throw away and replace.

Q: Suppose I play Draw 2 and Use 'em and the first of the cards I play is Rotate Hands. What cards do I pass as a result -- my original hand, which was set aside at the start of the D2&UE action, or the other card I'm drew as part of the D2&UE action?
- A: You pass your actual hand, i.e. the one you set aside. After everyone has rotated their hands, you then continue with the D2&UE action by playing the remaining card of the two you drew for that Action.

Q: Can I combine different Fluxx decks (e.g., regular and eco) or two Fluxx decks so 12 people can play or is the limit still 6?
- A: The biggest problem with playing Fluxx as one game with 12 players is that you wouldn't all be able to fit around the table very well, or see what cards people on the other side of the circle have in front of the, and most of all, it would take a really long time for each player to get a turn. Instead, I recommend you simply play as two groups of 6, each using their own deck.

Q: The Actions Mix It All Up (Fluxx 4.0), Zombie Jamboree (Zombie Fluxx), Mass Hysteria (Martian Fluxx), and Share the Wealth (Family & EcoFluxx) all do basically the same thing, which is "Gather up all Keepers and Creepers on the table, shuffle them together, and deal them back out to all players, starting with yourself." What exactly does that mean? Is it like the old Scramble Keepers action, where you get back the same number of cards you started with? Do I get to decide how many to deal to each player? And do the people who get these cards put them in their hands or on the table in front of them?
- A: The cards are dealt out evenly, going around the circle, giving one to each player in turn, continuing until the cards are all gone. You get the first card, the next player gets the second card, and so on. All cards will be revealed and put into play immediately, so it's OK to deal them out face up, but it's sometimes better to deal them out face down, then have everybody reveal what they got all at once. Unlike Scramble Keepers, this causes all players to end up with roughly equal numbers of cards. It may also result in someone who had a lot of cards ending up with just a few, and even for someone who had something to end up with nothing. So it goes.

Q: Does Inflation apply retroactively to the No-Hand Bonus? In other words, if I started the turn with an empty hand and drew 3 cards because of the No-Hand Bonus, and then I play Inflation, do I draw another card?
- A: No. While everything happens immediately in Fluxx, things don't happen retroactively. The action of the No-Hand Bonus only triggers at the start of your turn, therefore it doesn't give you an extra card when Inflation is played during your turn.

Q: When a card states that you "may" play 1 extra card (e.g., Rich Bonus or Party Bonus), and inflation is in play, it is treated as you may play 2 extra cards. Does this mean that you have to choose between playing 0 and playing 2, or can you also play only 1?
- A: It's either zero or two. There is no one.

Q: When the Double Agenda card is played, does the next goal played have to be added as a second goal, or can it be used to replace the one goal, thus leaving only one goal in play rather than two?
- A: The next Goal played must fill the empty spot, the old Goal stays at least until one other Goal is played.

Q: What defines the discard pile in Fluxx? This question is specifically in the context of any cards that let you search through the discard pile. Say the following (common) situation occurs, the deck is down to one card and you shuffle the discard pile and make the new deck. After a few turns someone plays a card that lets them search through the discard pile. Are they limited only to the cards within the discard pile zone? Or are all cards there and in the deck fair game since they have technically all been previously discarded?
- A: Only the active Discard pile is considered "the Discard pile," even after a deck reshuffle.

Q: Does Inflation not affect the Hand Limit 0 card? The 0 is written as a numeral, but then the text says "If it isn't your turn, you cannot hold any cards," which Inflation doesn't change.
- A: Despite the informality of the rules text which gives rise to this question, Inflation does indeed affect Hand Limit 0, turning it into Hand Limit 1. (Note from Andy: This question was answered incorrectly before.)

Q: If I play the Take Another Turn, is it ever NOT my turn before I take another turn? For example, when there is a Hand Limit in play, and I play Take Another Turn, do I have to discard cards between my two successive turns?
- A: It is indeed NOT your turn between two successive turns from a Take Another Turn, so you would have to comply with any Hand or Keeper Limits in play after ending one turn but before starting the next.

Q: Suppose I play Draw 2 and Use 'em and the first of the cards I play is Draw 3 Play 2. Since I have already set aside my hand for D2aU, then when I am instructed by D3P2 to set aside my hand, does that 'hand' refer to the second of the D2aU cards? Or since my hand is already set aside, do I combine the second card with the three I draw before playing two and Use'em'ing the second? If the latter, than can I simultaneously comply with the instructions to Use'em and Play 2 by playing the second card as one of the plays of Play 2, thereby avoiding playing two of the three Draw 3 cards drawn, and gaining one for my hand?
- A: You would set the card from D2aU aside. Both cards played from D3P2 count as part of your playing D3P2 and do not satisfy D2aU.

[edit] New for Fluxx 4.0

Q: What happens in the following condition: Two player game, 5 Keepers (Goal) is in play, Player 1 has 6 Keepers + War, Player 2 has 4 Keepers (including Peace). Player 1 plays Mix It All Up, shuffles and deal 5 Keepers (including Peace) + War to himself and 5 Keepers to the other player. We see: A) Instant Win condition for Player 2 (5 Keepers); or B) Instant Peace effect on War for Player 1 (Pass War to Player 2) leading to Instant win condition for Player 1, No win condition for Player 2. Which player wins?
- A: Player 1 wins. Everything that happens instantly happens in the same instant, and Peace and War cannot co-exist in the same place, so they must be separated before anything else can happen. Moving War away from Peace when they end up together is part of the Action of Mix It All Up and must be completed before you can claim a victory.

Q: If playing with the Radioactive Potato or Larry the Zombie, and the Goal changes, can a player win before RP or LtZ moves to the adjacent player?
- A: No. The movement of RP or LtZ counts as part of the result of the Goal played, so they move first, and then players check their win conditions.

Q: What happens if the Goal is Peace (no War) and I have both cards and the rule Silver Lining rule is played? Do I win, because War is a Creeper and Silver Lining says Creepers don't prevent victory, or do I not win because the card says you can't win if War is on the table?
- A: War stops Peace from winning with Peace No War even if Creepers in general don't stop victory, because the goal specifically says that War prevents Peace from winning. But to be extra clear, the Silver Lining should have text added that says "...unless it's a Creeper the Goal specifically forbids."

Q: When exactly does a person's turn begin? Suppose I have Death on the table along with some Keepers. Since this is Fluxx 4.0, where Death is now a Creeper, I have to discard one of my Keepers (or Creepers) at the start of my turn. So, does my turn begin before or after I draw? If my turn doesn't really start until after I draw, and I draw another Creeper, I can use Death to destroy the new Creeper instead of one of my Keepers, right?
- A: No. Drawing is something you do during your turn, and "at the start of your turn" is before you draw. Therefore you must deal with Death before you draw any new cards.

Q: The wording on the Hand Limit Cards has changed from V3.X to V4.0. Can you still discard down to the Hand Limit *before* your turn ends as shown in Andy's video about Hand Limit Cards, or do you now have to make all of the Play(x) *then* discard down to Hand Limit as your turn ends?
- A: The wording was changed to disallow the option described in that video, which needs to be adjusted or removed. Read more about it in the WWN for 8/28/8.

Q: With the You Also Need a Potato rule, does this mean you must have the potato to win no matter what, or that you must have the potato to win only if it is in play?
- A: Only if it's in play. IGNORE THIS RULE IF NO ONE HAS THE POTATO.

Q: It's Trash Day -- All players may choose to discard whatever cards they wish, from their hands or from the table in front of them. Is the OR an inclusive or (discard from your hand or the table or both) or an exclusive or (discard from hand or the table but not both)?
- A: Inclusive -- you can discard from either or both, up to and including everything you have.

Q: Everybody gets 1 -- This card states "You decide who gets what." If you draw a Creeper, can you give it away, or do you have to keep it and you draw another card?
- A: You must take any Creepers that show up while drawing cards for an action like Everybody Gets 1.

Q: With the rule Get On With It!, suppose it's Play 4, but you have three cards in hand. If I play those three cards, will I still have one play left, and can I activate "Get On With It!" since its before my final play and discard my hand of 0 to draw 3 cards and end my turn?
- A: No, a hand of zero cards does not count as a Hand in that situation.

Q: After the card Double Agenda is played, does the next goal played count as a "goal change" for the purposes of moving the Radioactive Potato card when it is in play?
- A: Yes. The goal has still changed -- it's gone from being "Do This Thing" to "Do either This Thing or That Thing."

Q: How quickly does Taxes destroy Money? Suppose I have Time and Taxes, and the Goal is Time is Money. Also, Silver Lining is in play, so that the Taxes wouldn't prevent victory if I had some Money to go with my Time. If I steal or play Money at that point, do I win, or would the Taxes destroy the Money before I can claim victory?
- A: Sorry, you don't win. Because everything takes effect immediately in Fluxx, the Taxes flush away the Money as soon as the Money arrives.

Q: If 10 Cards in Hand is played and two players are tied with the same number of cards in their hand, but one of them has Creepers, does the player without Creepers win because he is the only one who has met all the criteria or does no one win because their is a tie? This could apply to 5 Keepers as well and their extensions (i.e. 15 cards w/ Creepers versus 10 cards & no Creepers, etc.).
- A: The player with 10 cards and no Creepers wins. If you can't win because you have a Creeper, then you aren't eligible for victory even if you have more cards in hand than the other player. Ditto for 5 Keepers.

Q: Suppose I have a Creeper, and the other player plays 10 Cards in Hand and we both have more than 10 cards. If I have more cards than he does, I know I can't win because I have the Creeper, but can I stop him from winning until he has more cards than I do?
- A: Yes. The Goal says that the player with the most cards wins if someone has 10 or more cards (or 5 or more Keepers, in the case of that goal). This would be you - except that the Creeper prevents you from winning. Your opponent may be Creeper free, but is not meeting the requirement of having the most cards (or Keepers) and therefore does not win.

Q: Does Silver Lining neutralize War for Peace No War or the Need for a Baked Potato?
- A: No. The Silver Lining rule only neutralizes the general win-stopping power of Creepers. If the Goal says a specific card prevents victory, then you can't win if that particular card on the table, even when Silver Lining is in play. Similarly, if the rules say you Need a Baked Potato to win, and SOMEONE HAS IT, then you must be the player with the spud in order to win.

Q: When Death states that you may discard it if you have no other cards in play, is it referring to at any time you have no other cards in play, or only at the beginning of your turn when you would otherwise have to discard one?
- A: It is refering to at any time. The exact text on the card is "If you have this at the start of your turn, discard something else you have in play (a Keeper or a Creeper). You may discard this anytime it stands alone." So if you have only Death feel free to discard at any time.

Q: If the Radioactive Potato shows up before any Goal is played, does it move when someone plays the first Goal?
- A: Yes. The goal has still changed, from no goal to the new Goal.

Q: With the rules Get On With It! and Play All, which takes precedence? If I activate Get On With It! and take my 3 cards, does my turn end immediately (with the 3 cards still in my hand) or do I still have to play them due to the Play All rule?
- A: Get On With It! overrides Play All. If you take the Get On With It! option, then your turn ends immediately, even if the Play All rule is on the table.

Q: If after drawing the appropriate number of cards a player has 9 cards in hand, and plays the 10 Cards in Hand card first and the Draw 3 Play 2 card next, does he win? After playing the "10CiH" card he's down to 8 cards. By playing "D3P2" he temporarily gets to a total of 10 cards, but after completing the instructions on the "D3P2" card he's down to 7. The principle of everything happening instantly suggests he wins the game after drawing the three cards, but does the sentence "Set your hand aside" on "D3P2" mean that the player doesn't have the required 10 or more cards in hand as 7 of them are temporarily set aside?
- A: He does not win. It is as you describe in the second situation. The original hand doesn't combine with the D3P2 cards, meaning no win.

Q: If the rule Get On With It! is in effect and someone plays a card like Draw 3, Play 2 of them or Draw 2 and use 'em, can they play zero or one card from it and use Get On With It!'s effect before playing the last card?
- A: No. The Play of a card like D3P2 all counts as one play. So you would either need to invoke Get On With It! before the D3P2 is played or after. The Playing of D3P2, and all actions as a result of it are all 1 "Play".

[edit] Obsolete Editions

Q: When the New Rule Final Card Random is in play, does the player to the left pick the final card to be played BEFORE the player with the turn plays any cards or after? For example if the rule is to Play 4, does the player play 3 cards, then have the last card chosen from the cards remaining in their hand, or is the final card chosen first, then the player plays 3 cards, then the final card?
- A: Because of this very issue, Final Card Random was replaced with First Play Random during the upgrade to version 3 of Fluxx. But the card is still available as a promo item, so the question continues to come up. Some groups do indeed play by choosing the final card at the start of the turn and setting it aside until the time is right; however I always intended that the random selection be made at the time the card is needed. This works better because the random choice doesn't need to be made at all if the number of plays you must make decreases during your turn, causing you never to get to your expected final play.

Q: Why was Reverse Order retired from Fluxx with version 4.0?
- A: This card appeared only in versions 3.0 and 3.1. Here's what Andy said about his reasons for dropping it: "Reverse Order is one of those things that sound more fun than they actually are, at least in my opinion. At first, Reverse Order seems like another fine source of good wacky fun; but after you've dealt with it a lot, it proves to create more hassle and confusion than enjoyment. With everything else you have to keep track of in Fluxx, remembering that the turn order has changed gets tiresome without really adding much interest; and what's worse is that it usually just ends up hosing some poor player who was about to get a turn and instead has to wait for the action to go all the way around the circle again before he gets to do anything. In the most punishing of cases, this sad player waits a long time for the turn order to get back around to him only to see the rule discarded, again just before he was about to play, forcing another long wait before he gets to take a turn. It usually doesn't help anyone much, but it sure can slow down the fun for some. So, I ditched it."