Anatomy Fluxx FAQ

Also be sure to check out All Fluxx FAQ for more general questions. If you don’t see your question answered among these, please email us at:
FAQ@looneylabs.com

Q: If I have multiple Keepers attached to one of my Creepers in Anatomy Fluxx, are they all treated as one unit in terms of moving or trashing them?

A: A Creeper with multiple Keepers attached should all be treated as one unit when Exchanging, Trashing, or discarding due to a Limit. Basically, unless the card you’re using specifically states you can detach the Creeper, they all stay attached together.

Back To Top

Q: If I choose to Get on With It or Swap Plays for Draws, and I end up getting Creepers when I draw, can I still use Free Actions or Keeper powers to get rid of them?

A: Well you can… just not until your next turn.

When a player chooses to take either of these Free Actions, the effect is simultaneous with their turn ending immediately. Most notably, this means that if you draw any Creepers with your draws from Swap Plays or Get On With It, you’re stuck with them until your next turn, even if there are conditions which allow you to trash or give them away on your turn. Your turn ended immediately with the draw, so that window is over.

For more info on when you can do what during a Fluxx turn, see the link at the bottom of the right sidebar: Order of Events in a Fluxx Turn

Back To Top

Q: If I’m drawing multiple cards on my turn, and I draw a Creeper that makes me win, do I have to finish drawing the rest of the cards for my turn?

A: Yes, you must finish drawing the rest of your cards for your turn – you might draw another Creeper which would prevent your win. You must accept any and ALL Creepers acquired during your initial Draw phase before assessing win conditions.

Consider the initial Draw phase to be all one simultaneous thing. Think of it this way: not everyone draws one… card… at… a… time. Some grab the total number for the Draw, add them to their hand, then deal with Creepers at that time, putting them immediately into play, and drawing to replace. Differences in draw style should not affect the outcome of the game.

Back To Top

Q: How exact/thorough do answers need to be for Knowledge Bonus?

…Must the next player recite the entire factlet ? For example, in Olympus Fluxx: Apollo is the god of Sun, Music, Prophecy and the Arts. Do all four attributes need to be named, or is god of the Sun sufficient?

A: Basically, we were deliberately vague about this one, since some groups will want to play it more strictly than others. If you’re playing with a bunch of mythology nerds, you probably want them to name everything, and even add some other details, just as if you’re playing Anatomy Fluxx with a bunch of medical students – you’d demand a more thorough response. But for regular folks and especially for kids, getting anything on the list is enough.

Back To Top

Q: Can a Keeper have more than one Attaching Creeper attached to it?

A: Yes. In Star Fluxx, you could have an Evil Malfunctioning Robot. In Cthulhu Fluxx, you could have a Metamorphosing Poet who is plagued by Nightmares.

The only exception to this is in Anatomy Fluxx, where, the way the Creepers are written, you can only attach them to a Keeper which is not already afflicted, so any given Keeper can only be attached to one Creeper. On the other hand, in Anatomy Fluxx you also have the only case where you can have multiple Keepers attached to one Creeper.
If the Rule It’s Spreading! is in play, then, every time your turn comes around, you must attach an additional Keeper (if you have any unattached in play).

Back To Top

Q: If I have a Creeper needed to win, and I also have other Creepers not mentioned on the Goal, can I win?

A: No, you cannot. In most cases, if you have a Creeper not mentioned on the Goal you are trying to win with, then it prevents you from winning.

The exception could be considered to be Batman Fluxx, where, if you are winning with ANY Goal which requires a specific Villain (the Creepers of the Batman version) then no Villain prevents your win. You are considered to be “on the side of the bad guys” for that win. Batman Fluxx is also an exception in that, if the Goal does NOT require a Villain, then Villains ANYWHERE (in front of ANY player) will prevent the win.

Back To Top

Q: If someone plays Mix It All Up, and, as the Keepers and Creepers are being dealt out, someone gets the winning combo, do they win immediately, or must the rest of the cards be distributed?

A: You must finish distributing all of the cards. The person who got the winning combo might receive a Creeper which would negate their win. Consider the consequences of playing the one card, Mix It All Up, as being simultaneous. So you only check for win conditions after all of the Keepers/Creepers have been distributed.

Back To Top

Q: It is possible to use Get On With It if the rules are only Play 1?

… The wording “final play” makes it seem as if there’s more than one play needed….

A: If you have only one Play (or only one card to play, even if the rules allow more) then that one card would be both your first and your final play. So yes, there IS a final play, even if you’d only be playing one card.

So, in order to use Get On With It, you’d have to do it before your final play, i.e. before your ONLY play. You’d just not take your Play for that turn, and do Get On With It instead.

Back To Top

Q: If it’s draw 1, play all but 1, I draw 2 cards if I have no cards. If I then play draw 4, do I draw 2 or 3 more? Is that extra card counted as a draw or ignored like the no hand bonus is?

A: This is VERY good question, which we are surprised hasn’t come up before! We had to sit down and really contemplate the situation to make a ruling on this.

To recap, the Play All But 1 (New Rule) says “If you started with no cards in your hand and only drew 1, draw an extra card.” And, as we all know, when you play a card that increases the Draw amount, you get to draw the difference to increase your total cards drawn to the current New Rule in play.

The way Andy framed the question is “Is the extra card one draws like a ‘salary advance’ on your regular draw allotment , or is it more like a ‘bonus’ on top of your regular draw?” After some thought we felt that what the Play All But 1 card is doing is more like a temporary modification of the Basic Draw rule, and, as such, would make the extra card part of your total Draw allowance for your turn.

So, in the example presented in the question above, where (after having started with no cards, and Drawing 2) you have played Draw 4, you would draw only 2 additional cards (and continue to Play until you have only 1 card left in your hand).

Back To Top

Q: When Quiz ME is played all dated Goal cards in player’s hands will end up being played, except those in the hand of the player of Quiz Me, correct?

A: Correct.

Back To Top

Q: Can someone play a Surprise in the middle of the execution of Random Tax?

… Player A played Random Tax. They went around to each player to take a random card from their hand. When Player A got to Player C, Player C played a surprise to cancel out Player A’s action. Is playing that surprise card allowed?

A: A player wishing to cancel an Action (like Random Tax) needs to do so right away after the Action is played, since it doesn’t protect only that one player, it cancels the entire Action. If that player was waiting to see what card got stolen from them, and only then decided “Oops! I should have canceled that Action!” it’s definitely too late. They needed to decide “Darn! I don’t want to lose a random card from my hand! I’ll cancel that with a Surprise.”

You see, once the receiving player has seen cards from other’s hands, it taints the game. Now, your group could decide that this effect is negligible, and let the Surprising player get away with it on a one-time basis (assuming they timed it that way because they thought that was the correct time to play it – but NOT if they were just waiting to see what card would be stolen; does that make sense?)

Of course if you let the Surprise go through, the person who played Random Tax would have to return all of the cards they took from people because it cancels the entire Action “as though it had never happened”. If it was a legitimate error on the part of the Surprise player, and they’ve been schooled, one should not cut any slack on a second offense, I’d say.

We often have the players being taxed mix up their own cards, pick one blind, and then hand it over to the person receiving the tax. This reduces the temptation to try to play a Surprise only after someone sees what card got picked. Because that’s really not okay.

Doing it the way you did still works, of course, but then we’d encourage players to mix up their hand and present it face down out towards the Taxing player, so that neither one sees what card is taken until it’s actually gone.

Back To Top

Q: Does Double Agenda include the playing of a second Goal as part of it’s effect?

…Double Agenda says “A second Goal can now be played…” The person I was playing with thought this meant they automatically got to put a second Goal down as part of the Double Agenda play.

A: Double Agenda allows there to be two Goals at the same time, but playing a second Goal (or even first if you’re really early in the game!) still uses up one of your plays for your turn.

Back To Top

Q: Does Goal Mill allow one to discard UnGoals along with Goals from one’s hand?

A: Yes, as UnGoals say on them “This card is treated like a Goal,” you would be able to discard UnGoals along with Goals if utilizing the power of Goal Mill.

Back To Top

Q: How do I handle Creepers which are dealt to me at the beginning of the game?

A: Some versions of the rules deal with this explicitly, and some don’t, so we’re answering this here in the FAQ, just in case there is any confusion.

Creepers may not be held in your hand, so if you get a Creeper as part of your dealt hand, you put it on the table in front of you (play it pre-game, essentially) and draw to replace. If it’s another Creeper, continue until you have a starting hand containing zero Creepers.

Back To Top

Q: If I attach a Creeper to a Keeper, can I change it to a different Keeper on a subsequent turn?

A: No, once you’ve attached an Attaching Creeper, it stays with that one unless something happens to separate them (discarding both, mixing up all Keepers & Creepers, or some card which specifically states that you can detach a Creeper). Sorry!

Back To Top

Q: If a Goal requires a Keeper and Attaching Creeper, must it be attached to the Keeper on the Goal, or could it be attached to any of my Keepers?

… – For example: The Spock’s Beard Goal requires Spock and the Mirror Universe. If I had Spock, but the Mirror Universe is attached to Uhura, do I still win? Or does it have to be attached to Spock in order to win with that goal?

A: No, the Creeper does not have to be attached to the Keeper it goes with for the Goal.

This is sort of the corollary to this question: If my Attaching Creepers are not attached to the Keepers I need to win…

Back To Top

Q: What if someone says something for Alternate Factlets that I don’t think is true? Or what if it’s true, but silly, like “Pancreas begins with the letter P”?

A: If you’re not sure if what they’re saying is true, challenge them! Discuss the matter and make a judgement as a group. Consult the internet if needed.

Silly does not count.

Back To Top

Q: When using Zap A Card in Fluxx, can I take cards out of the discard pile?

A: No. The card says you can take any card “in play” on the table. That includes: the current Goal, any current Rule (not the Basic Rules, of course), or any Keeper or Creeper in front of any player. Note, of course, that Creepers cannot be held in your hand, so they go back into play in front of you if you steal them from someone else, instead of going into your hand.

Back To Top

Q: When I use Zap A Card on a Creeper, do I get to put it in my hand, then play it and draw to replace it?

A: Not quite. If you Zap a Creeper, you would simply then place it in front of you. You don’t get to draw anything.

The reason the Creeper card includes the words “then draw to replace” is that if you draw a Creeper, it goes down in front of you, and that doesn’t count as one of your draws (or one of your plays) so you still have a draw left, which you get to execute. Or if you were dealt a Creeper at the beginning of the game, it needs to go down in front of you, and you need to replace the card missing from your initial hand, since you should not start the game with a smaller hand than everyone else.

If you gain a Creeper any other way, you just gain it. It cannot ever really go into your hand, so it goes directly into play. If you choose to Zap a Creeper, you just get that Creeper. The reason is that Zap isn’t meant to give you an extra card in your hand so much as it is meant to give you whatever card you Zapped. So it’s not like you somehow missed out on the card Zap was intended to give you, such that you need to draw to “replace” anything.

Back To Top

Q: What happens if I Zap a Creeper attached to a Keeper? Or Zap a Keeper with a Creeper attached?

A: The Creeper and Keeper stay attached together until something separates them. So they would go to you, and attempt to go into your hand, which would separate them, since a Creeper cannot be held in your hand. So you’d end up with the Keeper in your hand, and the Creeper on the table in front of you, which will immediately attach to a Keeper, if possible (some can attach to any Keeper, some only to certain types.)

Back To Top

Q: What happens if I have zero cards in hand, with draw 1, play 1, and I draw and play Play All But 1?

A: The card Play All But 1 says: Play all but 1 of your cards. If you started with no cards in your hand and only drew 1, draw an extra card.

So, the player in question, starting with zero cards, must play the card they draw. If that card turns out to be Play All But 1, then, as per the directions on that card, since they “started with no cards in [their] hand and only drew 1,” then they need to draw an extra card. Since the current Rule is Play All But 1, they are left with 1 card in their hand, and their turn is over.

*Note that in some earlier printings, the last instance of the number 1 is written out as “one,” but, to avoid conflicts with Inflation, it should actually be a numeral as written here.

Back To Top

Q: What happens if a Goal and UnGoal are met at the same time?

… We were playing Cthulhu Fluxx, and what complicates things is that my wife had the Secret Cultist, so she would win if the UnGoal overrides the Goal, but my son would have won with the Goal if that overrides the UnGoal. [Note from Looney Labs, in Cthulhu Fluxx, a simultaneous Goal and UnGoal could arise from either Double Agenda or The Stars Are Right. Zombie Fluxx and Martian Fluxx could also generate this condition since they both have Double Agenda and an UnGoal. Zombie Fluxx also has the Zombie Boss Rule which can make a player win in the case of the UnGoal being met.]

A: Well, this IS a doozy. Andy and I had to think this through carefully.

But in the end, the answer seems obvious: on the rule sheet itself, at end of the first page in “Notes” is the ruling for ties:

“The game doesn’t end until there is a clear winner. If for some reason two of more players meet the winning conditions simultaneously, the game continues until a single winner emerges.”

So, for your situation, the answer is actually fairly simple: there were two players meeting winning conditions simultaneously, so keep playing until a clear winner emerges. Note that the “clear winner” need not be one of the two originally tied. It could happen that someone else manages to break the tie and win instead of either one of them.

What got a little tricky for us, is that we also wanted to rule in cases where the Cultist/Secret Cultist/Zombie Boss wasn’t invoked, which is to say when there is one player winning, but the conditions for “all players losing” is also met. How could that be? Would we rule that there is only one player winning? Or would we rule that there is “no clear winner”, since that player should simultaneously be both winning and losing?

We went with the latter: If a Goal and UnGoal are met simultaneously, then, even if there is not an actual player that can claim victory in the case of the UnGoal conditions, having the UnGoal met is like having the “forces of evil” be the winner. So if a player meets the winning condition, they are actually tied with “the forces of evil” , thus play would continue until a clear winner emerges.

In a way, all that the Cultist/Secret Cultist/Zombie Boss does is make an actual player represent those forces of evil, thereby claiming that victory.

Back To Top

Q: Attaching Creepers say “both cards stay together until discarded.” Are there exceptions to this rule?

A: While one of the most obvious ways to get rid of a Creeper attached to one of your Keepers is to destroy them both (or move them both), there ARE ways that you can destroy the Creeper while still retaining the Keeper. The key things here are 1) explicit wording, and 2) thematic appropriateness.

In Star Fluxx*, the exceptions are the Doctor, who can cure Brain Parasites, and the Engineer*, who can fix a Malfunction. In both cases they detach the Creeper, and the Keeper is left, good as new. Creeper Reassignment also specifically states that you detach the Creeper to move it. In Cthulhu Fluxx, the Dreamer states that he can detach Nightmares and discard it. Meanwhile the Sanitarium logically can cure an afflicted Keeper of Nightmares or Insanity. In Anatomy Fluxx, special actions allow you to “cure” yourself.

Some examples where the Creepers DO stay attached would be, in Star Fluxx, the weapons Laser Sword and Laser Pistol, which, again, quite logically, destroy the Keeper in order to destroy the attached Creeper. And while the Phaser in Star Trek or TNG Fluxx targets just the Creeper, it doesn’t say anything about detaching the Keeper either, so if you use it to get rid of an attached Creeper, the Keeper it’s attached to will also be destroyed. The Teleporter will move a Keeper… and its attached Creeper. If a Keeper or Creeper goes into the trash, then it’s attached card goes along.

In Cthulhu Fluxx, The Feds are pretty much the equivalent, though they also destroy themselves in the process. The Necronomicon lets you move any Creeper… and says nothing about detaching it, so you’d have to move any attendant Keeper (and extra Creepers if more than one is attached).

Trash Something is the generic Action version of what the weapons allow you to do. You could trash a Keeper, and it’s Creeper will go along, or you could trash a Creeper, and it’s attached Keeper would go along. There’s no logical reason or explicit wording that lets you detach connected Creeper-Keeper combos for this Action.

*In various Star Trek Fluxxen, there are specific Engineer analogues: Scotty, Geordi, O’Brien that work the same way with respect to Malfunction.

Back To Top

Q: Can I use Get On With It if I played my only card, but the Play rule says to play more? Does that count as “before my final play”?

…I had one card in my hand, with Play 4 in effect. I played my card, an Action card which was then discarded. I wanted to claim to able to get 3 new cards because “Get On With It” which was on the table says I could since I had discarded my hand and had 4 – 1 = 3 plays left.

A: In order to take the option to Get On With It, you must be sacrificing (at least) one of your Plays, and you must be discarding a hand of at least one card.

The most obvious issue is that, at the point when you wanted to Get On With It, you didn’t discard your hand. You played an Action, and now your hand is empty. You have to have something to discard in order to discard something. Your hand has to exist in order to be discarded.

The second issue is almost a side effect. We would not consider you to “have plays left” if you have no cards to play. In this case your first play WAS your final play, so you can’t take this option because it’s not before your final play. In order to have a final play, you have to have a card to play.

The whole thing follows logically, since the card/s you could have played – but didn’t – will be remaining in your hand, and therefore among the cards you’re throwing away.

See also: Is Swap Plays For Draws limited by the number of cards you have in your hand?

Back To Top

Q: Why does Let’s Do That Again say we shouldn’t change the order of the discard pile?

…It seems like it wouldn’t really matter.

A: Actually, this is mostly unnecessary. There used to be a rule where one could take things out of the top three cards, but that card has been replaced in all current versions with this one, which is more liberal. That said, there is a promo card which allows you to take the bottom card off the discard pile, so it would matter if you were playing with the promo card Composting. Hmm.

In Nature/EcoFluxx, the Action Scavenger lets you look down through the discard pile and play the first Keeper you find. Anyhow, you could look at the other cards in your deck, and see if this is going to matter for the version you’re playing with. It’s a matter of logic.

Back To Top

Q: It seems like Get On With It or Swap Plays for Draws would contradict Play All. Would putting either of these into play cause Play All to be discarded?

A: No. The instructions on Get On With It (or Swap Plays for Draws) only temporarily override the instructions on Play All and only on the turn of the player using it. Since choosing to use one of these is optional, simply putting either of them into play doesn’t contradict Play All, so you wouldn’t discard Play All just because you played one of them (nor vice versa!)

Back To Top

Q: When we draw a Creeper, put it into play, and then “draw another card to replace it,” does that card replace the Creeper, discarding it?

A: It’s true, the Creeper card does say “immediately draw another card to replace it” but this doesn’t mean you replace the Creeper on the table, discarding it. This means “replace the Creeper in the number of cards you drew.” If you needed to draw 3 cards, and you drew them and one of them was a Creeper, you play the Creeper and draw another card, because that Creeper doesn’t count as one of the 3 cards you needed to draw (neither does it count against the number of cards you get to Play on your turn), so you have only drawn 2 cards, so you still need to draw a third.

You’re not replacing the Creeper from it’s place “in play” (i.e. on the table). You’re just replacing the card “lost” as part of your draw count because it was a Creeper. The idea is that Creepers go into play automatically, whether you want them to or not. They’re usually a problem for you, and you have to work to get rid of them (though sometimes you need them for Goals, otherwise, they hinder you).

Back To Top

Q: What cards have effects that include ending my turn immediately if I play/use them?

A: Cards (Actions) that end your turn immediately if you play them:

Brain Transference: Star Fluxx
Clean Cup!: Wonderland Fluxx
Time Portal: Star Fluxx, Doctor Who Fluxx, TNG Fluxx, Voyager Fluxx,
What Do You Want?: Star Fluxx, Oz Fluxx, Doctor Who Fluxx
I’ll Be In My Bunk: Firefly Fluxx
I’ll Be Right Back: Fluxx Remixx
(These last two cards don’t specifically say that your turn ends immediately, but you certainly can’t continue your turn if you “Excuse yourself from the game and leave the room for a few minutes.”)

Cards (Rules) that end your turn immediately if/when you execute them, but not when you play them:

Swap Plays for Draws
Get On With it
Play All +1 (not optional, but see below)

Free Action Rules are optional, so you could choose not to use one that will end your turn immediately. While Play All +1 is not optional, you have some options about when you choose to take that final +1.

Other questions pertaining to cards which cause your turn to end immediately:

Interaction with Play All
Interaction with Hand Limits
Using immediate turn-end Actions with compound Actions like Draw 3 Play 2, etc
Using immediate turn-end New Rules with compound Actions like Draw 3 Play 2, etc
Interaction with Play All +1

Also see:

Order of events in a Fluxx turn

Back To Top

Q: How does Share The Wealth (or Mix It All Up) interact with attaching Creepers?

A: We’re very careful not to include cards that don’t play well together in a deck. So, for most decks with Creepers, we use Mix It All Up (or one of its analogues, like Crawling Chaos) instead of Share The Wealth. Star Fluxx doesn’t have either card (Share The Wealth OR Mix It All Up). The only deck with Creepers that has Share The Wealth is Pirate Fluxx, which does not have attaching Creepers, and Crawling Chaos (in Cthulhu Fluxx), which includes Creepers but specifically says that you do detach Creepers to mix them up, so that should be clear.

Mix It All Up is clear in its wording that it will detach Attaching Creepers, in that it says to gather them all, and when redistributed “Creepers that attach are attached to a new Keeper…” We don’t want a “memory condition” to exist where you have to remember what a Creeper was attached to when you mix them all together.

If you’re encountering Share the Wealth with Attaching Creepers, it would only be if you were mixing decks, in which case, please treat it as if it were a Mix It All Up card: detach all Creepers, and mix them all in with the Keepers to deal out. If you’re just playing Pirate Fluxx, it should not be an issue to play Share The Wealth as written, i.e. not including Creepers.

Back To Top

Q: Some cards say things about “when discarded”. If I use Zap A Card, the card isn’t discarded, it’s just no longer in play. Isn’t that the same thing in this case?

A: Yes, removing a card from play with Zap A Card would have the same effect as discarding it… unless it’s a Creeper, in which case it cannot be held in one’s hand, and would effectively just be moved from in play in front of one player, to in play in front of the player who Zapped it.

Back To Top

Q: What happens to the two Goals when Double Agenda is trashed?

A: Whoever caused it to go away gets to choose which Goal stays in play, and which gets trashed.

Back To Top

Q: What are all the different cards in different versions where you get to draw the top card and play it immediately?

A: There are many analogues to Wormhole (the first one we made) or Mystery Play (the most generic one). Some may require a token action (click your heels together to use Magic Shoes in Oz Fluxx, for example) or condition (if a certain card is in play) to activate them but they are essentially all the same kind of card.

Mystery Play in Fluxx 5.0, SE, Remixx, Astronomy, SpongeBob, and Wonderland
Mythtery Play in Fantasy
Wormhole in Star, Star Trek TOS, TNG, and Voyager
Shiny! in Firefly
Allons-y/Geronimo! in Doctor Who
Spontaneous Reaction in Chemistry
Egads! in Batman
Unknown Variable in Math
THWIP! in Marvel
(the Infinity Gauntlet Keeper in Marvel has this as its special power as well)
Great Idea! in Stoner
Magic Spell in Fairy Tale
Magic Portal in Adventure Time
Magic Shoes in Oz (if you click your heels together three times)
Open The Door in Monster (if the Spooky Door is in play)
Open A Gift! in Holiday (if The Gift is in play)
Chemical X in Cartoon Network (if at least one Powerpuff Girl is in play)
Time Doorway in Regular Show (if the Time Machine is in play)

Back To Top

Q: Could you clarify how many cards we can eliminate with Let’s Simplify? What does “up to half (rounded up)” mean?

A: The wording on Let’s Simplify is as clear as we could make it. If we had said that you may discard up to half of the New Rules in play, and there were an odd number (for example, five of them) you wouldn’t know whether you should round up or down. But we tell you that you should ROUND UP when figuring out what “half” is, so in this example, you know you can discard up to three.

Of course, you may discard up to half – you don’t have to discard three; you could choose to discard just one or two, or even zero if you want. Those numbers are all less than “half (rounded up) of five”.

Back To Top

Q: Can someone stand up and move around the table to give someone Germs (or Con Crud), or do they have to remain seated?

A: No, it has to be someone you can reach from where you are sitting during the regular course of the game.

Back To Top

Q: When I trash, destroy, discard, exchange, or recycle one half of a Keeper/Creeper attached combo do they stay together?

A: You may notice that Attaching Creepers are usually something which modifies the qualities of the Keeper itself. The idea is that they become as inseparable as one object. You don’t have a Doctor and a Brain Parasite, you have a Sick Doctor; you don’t have a Poet and Insanity and Metamorphosis, you have an Insane Mutated Poet; you don’t have a Holodeck and a Malfunction, you have a Malfunctioning Holodeck; you don’t have a Bacteria and Liver and Heart and Thyroid, you have one giant Liver-Heart-Thyroid Infection (yipes!); you don’t have Spock and the Mirror Universe, you have Mirror Universe Spock, and so on, and so on…

That’s the whole point of the “stays together until discarded” wording. Anything that you could do to the Keeper will also happen to the Creeper which is attached to it, and vice versa. In Star Fluxx, when you use the Laser Sword or Laser Pistol to attack a Keeper with a Creeper attached, you are attacking the afflicted Keeper, and the whole point is that it’s a way to get rid of the Creeper.

In the Star Trek Fluxxes, the Phaser is similar, but the language states that you are targeting the Creeper (because the Trek Fluxxes include non-attaching Creepers as well, it makes the Phaser more useful against ALL Creepers, not just attaching ones). When you destroy the Creeper, then if it is attached to a Keeper, the Keeper will be destroyed too (it’s not possible to shoot just the Mirror Universe aspect of Mirror Universe Spock, you have to shoot the dude as a whole…)

You can Trash a Keeper, Exchange Keepers, or discard it because of a Keeper Limit. All totally valid ways to rid yourself of annoying attached Creepers! (If you Trash Something to discard the Creeper, the Keeper it’s attached to will also be trashed, of course.)

You can even Recycle it (bonus!) and the attached Creeper will go into the discard pile with the Keeper. “Oh, this thing is messed up and useless to me now. In fact, it’s a hindrance!… I don’t want it anymore. But hey! At least I can recycle it!”

In fact, if you’re trying to acquire a certain Creeper to meet a Goal, you can Steal a Keeper (or Steal Something), and you’ll get the whole Keeper/Creeper combo. see: If a Goal requires a Keeper and Attaching Creeper…

Your Hologram or Holodeck is not duplicating just a Robot, it’s duplicating an Evil Robot… for better or for worse, as the case may be! see: If the Holographic Projector/Holodeck is used to imitate a Keeper with a Creeper attached…

There are some exceptions, and they’re usually very explicitly worded to let you know they are exceptions. see: …Are there exceptions to this rule?

Or they follow directly from qualities of the Creeper (i.e. things which would take the Keeper up into someone’s hand, but it has a Creeper attached, will result in the Creeper being “spat out” in front of the person who took the combo up into their hand.
see: If someone plays Beam Us Up, and one player had a being/crew member with a Creeper attached…
see: What happens if I use Zap a Card on a Creeper/Keeper combo?

Back To Top

Q: Can you Get On With It or Swap Plays For Draws with your cards from an Action like Draw 3 Play 2?

A: You could certainly put either of these New Rules (Get On With It, or Swap Plays For Draws) into play as part of an Action like Draw 3 Play 2 of them (D3P2) or Draw 2 and Use Em (D2UE), or Fizzbin (or your cards drawn via the Rule Goal Bonanza) but you could not utilize their functions while in the middle of executing one of these cards. While all four of these Actions/Free Actions do give you a sort of temporary hand, you can’t substitute it for your real hand to “discard and draw back up to 3”, for example.

You would either need to invoke Get On With It! before the Free/Action with the temporary hand is played or after. The Playing of D3P2/D2UE/Fizzbin/Goal Bonanza, and all actions as a result of it are considered 1 “Play”.

See also: What happens if I play an Action that causes my turn to end immediately in the middle of Draw 3 Play 2 or Draw 2 & Use Em (or Fizzbin, or Goal Bonanza)?

Back To Top

Q: If a card says “Your turn ends immediately,” but Play All is in effect, which takes precedence?

A: When you play an Action or use a New Rule card says “your turn ends immediately” it means it’s specifically overriding any Play rule that might otherwise require you to keep playing cards on this turn. You also end any option you may have to use Keeper powers or “Free Action” Rules. If it says “your turn ends immediately” then your turn ends immediately – so make sure you’re all done with stuff before you play/use one of these cards!

See: Q: What cards have effects that include ending my turn immediately if I play/use them?

Also see: Would putting either of these two into play cause Play All to be discarded?

Back To Top

Q: Do the cards you draw with the No-Hand Bonus count towards your Draw for that turn?

If I qualify for drawing three cards because of the No-Hand Bonus, and the Draw rule is five, do I draw a total of five cards or eight?

A: The No-Hand Bonus states: “Draw a new hand of 3 cards BEFORE observing the current draw rule” (emphasis added). Your drawing 3 cards is considered a “pre-turn action”: these cards essentially make up a “new hand” which simulates you having had a hand BEFORE starting your turn. Then you observe the current draw rule, which says draw 5 cards.

So you draw a total of eight cards in this case.

Secondary Q: So if I increase the Draw rule from Draw 2 to Draw 4 on my turn, do I still get to draw an extra 2 cards? One of my opponents argued that I had already drawn 5 for the Bonus plus the Draw 2, so I couldn’t draw more when I increased the Draw rule.

A: Since the cards drawn for the No-Hand bonus are separate from those drawn because of the Draw rule in play, and don’t count towards the number of cards drawn for your turn, YES, you get to draw two more cards when you increase the Draw from 2 to 4.

Back To Top

Q: If something is played where “your turn ends immediately,” does it mean that you are not subject to the hand and Keeper limits that turn?

A: No. Hand and Keeper Limits apply to you when it’s not your turn, so you would observe them as soon as your turn ends.

See also: Q: What cards have effects that include ending my turn immediately if I play/use them?

Back To Top

Q: What do I do if I draw a Creeper because of an Action?

A: If a Creeper is drawn by the active player, they must take the Creeper (play it in front of themselves) and draw to replace, such that all the cards they have drawn for whatever the Action indicates will contain no Creepers.

For example, if I play Everybody Gets One, then I, as the active player, am the one drawing cards. As such, I have to take all the Creepers I draw, redrawing until I’m holding enough non-Creeper cards to give 1 to each player including myself. In a deck with a lot of Creepers, anything that makes you draw cards is a liability!

Back To Top

Q: If the rules are Draw 1, and I draw three Creepers in a row, how many cards do I redraw?

…I say it’s just one card, but my husband says it should be three, since three Creepers were drawn. Who is right?

A: For practical purposes, you are correct. If you have laid down three Creepers in a row like that, you are left needing to draw 1. After your draw phase, you should end up having drawn just 1 non-Creeper for your Draw 1.

If anyone is having a hard time wrapping their head around why this is, here’s a blow-by-blow description of what happens when you draw three Creepers in a row while trying to Draw 1.

You Draw 1. It’s a Creeper.
It goes in front of you, and you draw to replace it, hoping for a non-Creeper to satisfy the current Draw rule.
Your “draw to replace” is… a second Creeper.
It goes in front of you with the first, and you draw to replace it, hoping for a non-Creeper to satisfy the current Draw rule.
Your “draw to replace” is… a third Creeper.
It goes in front of you, and you draw to replace it, hoping for a non-Creeper to satisfy the current Draw rule.
Your “draw to replace” is… finally a non-Creeper, which you add to your hand, and you have successfully followed the current Draw rule, which is Draw 1.

As you can see, in some ways, your husband is right… but the thing is, the three cards that were “drawn to replace” did happen… they’re just over as soon as you draw 1 non-Creeper.

Back To Top

Q: If my attaching Creepers are not attached to the Keepers I need to win, can I still win?

A: Creeper cards say “You can’t win if you have this unless the Goal says otherwise.” This means that having a Creeper in play in front of you prevents you from winning whether it is attached to one of the Keepers needed for the Goal or not.

Creepers occur in many versions of Fluxx, but only in a relatively few versions do they attach to specific Keepers. So the question of attachment does not affect the general behavior and limitations of Creepers.

This is sort of the corollary to this question: If a Goal requires a Keeper and an Attaching Creeper…

Back To Top

Q: Can I put more than one Attaching Creeper on the same Keeper?

A: Yes, as long as the Keeper is compatible with the Creeper. Some attaching Creepers can only attach to Keepers with certain specific qualities, like they have to be sentient, or they have to be investigators, or they have to be mechanical.

For example, you could attach both Evil and Malfunction to the Teleporter to get an Evil Malfunctioning Teleporter. In Cthulhu Fluxx, The Poet could be Mad and also have Nightmares… heck, he could also be Metamorphosed as well.

This can make it easier to get rid of those Creepers, since you only have to get rid of that one VERY afflicted Keeper to ditch ALL the attached Creepers.

Back To Top

Q: Must attaching Creepers be attached at the first available opportunity, or only are they only attachable when first played?

For example, if an attaching Creeper is played when there is no appropriate Keeper to attach to, does it stay unattached forever (or until the Action Creeper Reassignment is played), or does it attach to the next available Keeper which accompanies it in play? In other words, does it only attach if there are (appropriate) Keepers in play when it goes down on the table, or will it attach to Keepers played later?

A: The text on attaching Creepers states “If you have any [appropriate Keepers] in play, you much choose one to attach this to.” This property is not limited to the moment when the Creeper is first played. If there is no appropriate Keeper to attach to when it is played, it will attach to the first appropriate Keeper that arrives.

Back To Top

Q: If Double Agenda is on the table, and each Goal requires a different Creeper can you win by fulfilling both Goals?

For example, if the Goals were He Bravely Ran Away (requires the 3-Headed Giant) and Rabbits of DOOM (requires the Killer Rabbit).

A: No, not if they are two different Creepers like this. The 3-Headed Giant you need to win with He Bravely Ran Away prevents you from winning with Rabbits of DOOM, while the Killer Rabbit you need for that prevents you from winning with He Bravely Ran Away.

Back To Top

Q: If I have specific Creepers required for a Goal, but I also have other Creepers, can I still win with that goal?

A: In the vast majority of cases, you cannot win if you have Creepers not specifically required by the goal.

Exceptions:
• Do your extraneous Creepers say that they keep you from winning? (Almost all Creepers do, but if they don’t then go for it.)
• Is there a Rule in play that lets you win even if you have Creepers? (There are a couple of these, depending on which versions you have.)
• In Batman Fluxx, if the Goal requires a Villain, Villains don’t prevent you from winning. However, if the Goal does NOT require a Villain, then Villains ANYWHERE prevent you from winning.
• In Nature Fluxx (aka EcoFluxx) all Creepers prevent everyone from winning, regardless of who has them.

See also: The… Goal requires a Keeper and either of two Creepers…

Back To Top

Q: When Double Agenda goes into play, does the next Goal played have to go in the second slot?

Or can it replace the single Goal in play, leaving a spot empty?

See this answer in a video!
Little Answers

A: If there is an empty slot for a Goal because of Double Agenda, the next Goal played must fill that spot, and not replace the single Goal already in play.

Back To Top

Q: For Actions that re/distribute Keepers and/or Creepers among the players, how are those dealt back out?

Do I get to decide who gets what? Do I get to decide how many to deal to each player? Do the recipients put them in their hands or on the table in front of them? Are they face up or face down? When I’m dealing them out, who do I start with?

A: First of all, only for Everybody Gets 1 (or Dreams & Omens) does the active player get to look at and decide who gets what. That’s a very different situation that the ones we’re talking about here. This question focuses on random (fairly even) redistribution along the lines of Share The Wealth.

The cards in question are shuffled or otherwise randomized so that the dealer does not know what’s being given out. They are then dealt out evenly, going around the circle clockwise, one card to each player in turn, continuing until the cards are all gone. Dealing starts with either the active player or the player to their left, with the intention of providing any possible benefit to the active player.

• So if it’s for Keepers, or a mixture of Keepers and Creepers, the active player should get the first card, because this is felt to be to their advantage, so they won’t get shorted if the number doesn’t deal out evenly. However, we would consider it an officially sanctioned house-rule if your group wanted to give the active player the option of starting with the player to their left instead of themselves. There could be reasons…

• For redistribution of Creepers-only, the card will usually say to start with the player to the left of the active player, because Creepers are generally considered a disadvantage, and this would mean that if anyone was going to receive fewer, it would always be the active player. However, as with other redistribution cards, your group may choose to let the active player decide whether they want to start with themselves or the person on their left. Again, we can think of reasons why someone might want to start distributing Creepers to themselves first.

Once dealt, all cards will be 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. As mentioned above, re/distributing by dealing will cause all players to end up with roughly equal numbers of cards. So if there are large discrepancies in the number of cards players had in play, this will even them out: players with a lot more than other players will end up with fewer than they had, and players with few or zero cards in play may end up with more. That’s the way it goes.

Here’s a list of redistributing cards, and their types:

Keepers only
Share the Wealth
Monster Mash
Run!!!
The Grand Ball
Keepers & Creepers
Mix It All Up
Zombie Jamboree
Crawling Chaos
Mass Hysteria
It’s a Cyclone!!!
Creepers only
Return of the Dead
Jailbreak/removal of Arkham Asylum rule

Scramble Keepers, which is only in early versions of “Basic” Fluxx (1.0-3.x) is the only Action which is different. While you still shuffle up the Keepers and hand them back randomly and they go back into play, you don’t deal them out evenly, but instead give each player the same number of Keepers they had before. When we came up with Share The Wealth, we felt it was far superior, as we liked the way it leveled the playing field, keeping the game more competitive, to maximize player engagement.

Back To Top

Q: For Everybody Gets 1, do I get to look at the cards before I hand them out to people?

The card reads, in part “You decide who gets what.” My brother thinks I should hand them out without looking at them, but I think I get to look at them so that I know what they all got, but they only know what they each got.

A: As you have surmised, there is indeed no meaning to the phrase “you decide who gets what” unless you get to look at all the cards before you hand them out (yes, the intention is that you hand them out face down so that each person only knows what they themselves got).

Many people’s first instinct upon seeing someone else play this card is to simply reach forward and draw from the deck themselves, as if it were indeed intended to be random, but most, upon a careful reading of the card, come to the correct conclusion.

Since we have plenty of room on this card, we started implementing clearer text on this card in 2016:
“You look at the cards and decide who gets what, dealing them out face down to each player.”

Back To Top

Q: Does the Rule Mystery Play require one to play the specific card flipped up from the top of the deck?

My friends think you can add it to you hand, and play some other card from their hand.

A: You are correct, your friends are incorrect. You pull the top card off the deck, and immediately play that card. You do not get to add it to your hand, or play any other card from your hand.

Also see: What are all the different cards in different versions where you get to draw the top card and play it immediately?

Back To Top

Q: Do Keeper Limits apply to Creepers as well?

A: No. There is no limit to the number of Creepers you can have in front of you.

Back To Top

Q: If you draw a Creeper with Mystery Play (or any of its analogues) you play it and then redraw. What if you draw yet another Creeper?

A: You keep drawing until you get a non-Creeper.

You may be seeing this question because it relates to a deck with a Mystery Play analogue (a card with the same or nearly the same functionality, but a different name). To see all of the Mystery Play analogues, check out the Fluxx Card Comparison Chart, (also linked in the lower part of the right sidebar).

Back To Top