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The Quacks of Quedlinburg – The Alchemists
Content:
5 alchemy stations
5 essence markers
8 patient markers
8 patient panels
20 essence cards (double sided)
20 Fortune-Teller cards
40 Cherry Bombs – white chips (25 1-chips, 10 2-chips, 5 3-chips) – for replacement
purposes only, if yours are damaged
30 Locoweed
The Idea:
For The Alchemists you will need the base game The Quacks of Quedlinburg.
(We recommend that for your first play, you only combine The Alchemists with the base
game. As you get more comfortable with all the new additions in this expansion, try adding
The Herb Witches as well.)
As Alchemists you will try to find a cure for patients with many unusual diseases. To start
the game off you will choose yourself a patient. Each patient requires a different Essence to
cure their disease. You put these Essences in your alchemy station and as you work on
these Essences, you receive special bonuses based on your chosen patient.
Game Setup:
Set up the game in the same way as The Quacks of Quedlinburg.
Mix the new Fortune-Teller cards with the ones from the base game. Note that some of
these cards can only be used while playing with The Herb Witches or The Alchemists. These
are marked with a symbol in the right lower corner. Cards with no symbols can be played
with or without any of the expansions.
Choose one ingredient book for the Locoweed and lay it out. They are not part of any set, so
they can be used with any set. (Or choose a Locoweed ingredient book from The Herb
Witches)
Additionally each player receives their alchemy station, essence marker and 4 essence
cards in their colour. (Essence cards have two sides showing all of the available Essences.)
Place your alchemy station above your pot (player board) and then your essence marker on
spot „0“ of your alchemy station.
Put all 8 patient markers in a bag and randomly choose 3. Then find the patient panels
matching your chosen patient markers and place them to the middle of the table, so

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everyone can see them. Put all patient markers and the rest of the patient panels (5) back
into the box, they will not be used during this game.
Each player chooses a patient they want to cure from the available 3. Then they find the
corresponding essence card and place it on their alchemy station. (You can look at the
essence cards before you choose a patient and the corresponding Essence, so you can see
the bonuses you can get.) More than one player can choose to cure the same patient.
Place all unused essence cards back into the box.
How to Play:
Follow The Quacks of Quedlinburg rules with the following exceptions:
New Phase: The Essence Phase
This phase takes place after all players have ended their Potion Phase and before the
Evaluation Phase. In this phase in addition to your potion (and it doesn´t matter if you
exploded or not), you also distill an Essence in your alchemy station. You do this phase at
the same time with all the other players.
At the beginning of the phase set your essence marker at the spot „0“ in your alchemy
station. Same as the potion brewing, you cannot save your progress to the next round, you
always start from the spot „0“. Follow the next 3 steps in succession:
At first count how many different ingredients (colours) you have in your pot,
excluding the white ones! Then place your essence marker at the exact spot in your
alchemy station.
If the sum of all white chips in your pot equals 7, move your essence marker one
space forward.
Move our essence marker one space forward if one of your direct neighbours´ pot
exploded. If both of your neigbours´ pots exploded, move your essence marker two
spaces forward. (In a 2-player game you move your essence marker one space if the
other player´s pot exploded.)
Then you receive a bonus for your distilled Essence. To do this follow the glass tube leading
from your essence marker to the specific glass on your essence card. You receive a bonus
pictured on that glass spot on your essence card. These can be advancing your rat stone for
the next round, victory points or a special bonus described on each essence panel. (Each is
described in the rule book.)
If there are victory points pictured immediately move your scoring marker along the
Scoring Track accordingly.
If there is a rat stone pictured. Move your rat stone 1 space forward in the next
round.

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Victory points and rat stone advancing are additional bonuses that you receive in
addition to your special patient bonus.
If there is a bonus pictured. Look at your patient´s panel and follow what it says.
After the Essence Phase comes the Evalutation Phase.
The Last Turn
In the 9. Round you don´t get any of the pictured bonuses – rat stone advancing or victory
points, instead you receive victory points based on how far you got on your alchemy station.
(Equal to the spot number)
The Essences:
Frightfulness
If your essence marker landed on a space 1, you can move your rat stone 1 space forward
next round. If your essence marker landed on any other space, at the beginning of your next
Potion Phase draw a number of chips from your bag shown on your essence card (based on
where your essence marker landed). Return all white chips drawn back into the bag. Put the
rest of the chips right in front of you. In the Potion Phase you can choose to place a chip
from the ones you put in front of you or to draw a chip from your bag and to place it in your
pot. You cannot place any from the chips in front you after your pot has exploded.
Special case: Toadstool set 2: Red chips put in front of you can still be placed and only be
placed after you have stopped drawing chips.
Earworm
After you have ended moving your essence marker, draw the shown number of chips from
your bag – one after the other. After you draw a chip, place it the same way as you would in
your Potion Phase (also follow the chip´s special power as usual). Repeat as many times as
your essence card shows. White chips are placed in your pot as well but don´t cause
explosion if the sum of all white chips exceeds the value of 7.
Special case: Toadstool set 2: Red chips drawn can be placed in the pot or stored for later
rounds as usual.
Turnip Nose
At the beginning of the game take 1-pumpkin chip and put it in your bag. You begin the game
with 10 chips.
You can get rat stone advancement or victory points as a bonus. You can use the actual
Essence power only during your next Potion Phase. Every time you draw a pumpkin from
your bag, you can decide to move your essence marker 2 spaces back in order to move your
pumpkin to the next free ruby space in your pot. The printed value on the pumpkin becomes
irrelevant.

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Sailing Ears
You can get rat stone advancement or victory points as a bonus. You can use the actual
Essence power only during your next Potion Phase. Every time you draw a white chip, you
can decide to move your essence marker 2 spaces back in order to move your white chip
twice as far (for example a 3-white chip 6 spaces) OR to move your essence marker 3
spaces back in order to put the chip back into your bag. You don´t have to use any of these
actions when drawing white chips.
You cannot use any of these actions when the drawn white chip causes your pot to explode!
Chicken Eyes
At the end of the Essence Phase you get the bonus shown on your essence card. (Rubies,
Pumpkin, Changing an 1-value chip for 2-value chip, ...)
Witch Hump
You can get rat stone advancement or victory points as a bonus. You can use the actual
Essence power only during your next Potion Phase. Every time you place a chip on a ruby
space in your pot, you can decide to move your essence marker 2 spaces back in order to
receive a bonus depicted on your essence card or a patient panel. This bonus depends on
the printed value of the chip (or an ingredient type). You don´t have to use this action.
You receive these bonuses immediately. If you get a new chip, place it immediately in your
bag. If you roll a droplet with the bonus die, move your droplet immediately (put it on your
first chip if necessary). Your already laid chips cannot be moved when doing this.
Toadstool set 2: When you place your red chip after stopping, you can no longer use your
Essence action!
Forgetfulness
At the beginning of the game take 1-red chip and 1-blue chip and put both in your bag. You
begin the game with 11 chips.
You can get only victory points as a bonus. You can use the actual Essence power only
during your next Potion Phase. At any time in your turn you can return any coloured chip
back into your bag (you cannot return white chips and Locoweed). In order to do that, move
your essence marker back the number of spaces equal to the printed value of the chip
returned. Positions of all the other chips won´t change when returning a chip back into your
bag. This may result in gaps in your pot.
Vampirism
If your essence marker landed on a space 1, you can move your rat stone 1 space forward
next round. If your essence marker landed on any other space, at the end of the Essence
Phase you can buy 1 chip for the coins that are shown on your essence card. Put the chip in
your bag. This chip has no impact on the number of chips bought in the Evaluation Phase.

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New Ingredient Books:
Locoweed 1: (cost 11) – Value 1
After you have counted the number of different colours in your pot and moved your essence
marker to the corresponding space, you can move your essence marker 1 additional space
for each Locoweed in your pot. For example when you have 2 Locoweed in your pot, you
move your essence marker 3 spaces (once for the colour and twice – once for each
locoweed).
Locoweed 2: (cost 16) – Value depends
Before you put your Locoweed in your pot, count how many ingredients of different colours
are there (excluding white), then move the Locoweed that many spaces. If this is your first
Locoweed drawn, count it as well even though it isn´t yet in your pot.
Locoweed 3: (cost 10) – Value 1
After placing the Locoweed in your pot, choose any coloured chip (not white) and put it
immediately in your bag. The position of all the other chips remains unaffected.
Locoweed 4: (cost 12) – Value depends
Before you put the Locoweed in your pot, count the sum of the printed values on all of your
white chips in your pot. Move the Locoweed that many spaces. If there is no white chip in
your pot, then its value is 1.

Translated by: Golmik from BGG

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