• NB: ArkhamDB now incorporates errata from the Arkham Horror FAQ in its card text, so the ArkhamDB text and the card image above differ, as the ArkhamDB text has been edited to contain this erratum (updated January 2022): Erratum: The second part of this card’s ability should read: “Undo that action (return the game state to exactly the way it was before that action was performed, except for the playing of Time Warp and its costs).” - FAQ, v.1.4, September 2018

This card will prompt a lot of crazy rules questions. Here are some answers. The headline, though:

"The fact of the matter is that 99% of the time, this card is going to be used in quite simple situations, like after failing an attack against a retaliate enemy ... The only really important thing to remember is if you can’t return the game state to the way it was before you played Time Warp, the effect fails (i.e. you can’t pick and choose which things to reset, it’s all or nothing)." [emphasis Frank's]

• Q: What happens if the action that's being undone has (as per special symbols in Rite of Seeking) immediately ended the investigator's turn? A: Even if the action you were performing ended your turn, you can still play Time Warp as a reaction to that action resolving. Time Warp doesn’t say "play only during your turn" nor does it take an action to play, so there’s no reason why you couldn’t play it even if your turn ended. In playing it, you would return the game state to the way it was before your turn "immediately ended"”, so you could then continue to play out your turn, as normal.

• Q: Can you play Time Warp after an action ends the game? A: Note that you could not play Time Warp in reaction to an action that ended the game, because ending the game is immediate, and no more cards can be played once the game has ended.

• Q: When returning the game state to 'exactly the way it was before that action was performed': if I use Scrying, and then play Time Warp, do I put back the scryed cards in the order I saw them? More generally, how does this card interact with scrying? What happens if the action I've performed, like Calling in Favors, has shuffled my deck? A: To the extent that cards can be returned in the same order, they should be. So for example, if you use Scrying to reorder the top 3 cards of the encounter deck and then play Time Warp, you should go back and reorder those cards into their original order. Likewise, if I drew a card and then played Time Warp, the card I drew should be returned to the top of my deck. If you are unable to return the game state to exactly the way it was before the action was performed, the effect fails.To the extent that you know the exact order of things, you should return the game state to exactly the way it was. But for cards whose order you did not know, it’s fine to keep them randomized. For example, if I played No Stone Unturned and searched my deck for any card (let’s say Encyclopedia), it was part of my unknown randomized deck, so if somebody then plays Time Warp, I can (and should) just shuffle Encyclopedia back into my deck and that satisfies the effect of Time Warp. But, as previously noted, if I drew a card from the top of my deck and then played Time Warp, the card I drew should be returned to the top of my deck, because I knew that’s where it was.

However, a randomized deck is a randomized deck – there’s no way of knowing the exact order of the cards, so keeping it shuffled is fine. You still don’t know what the order of the deck was, so the game state is effectively the same. [this is another super useful point]

• Q: How does this card interact with Quantum Flux? Do you need to be able to recall what cards were in your discard pile? Or do you just return the drawn card to the top of your deck and proceed from there? A: If you know exactly what cards were in your discard pile, you should retrieve those cards and place them back in your discard pile in order to return the game state to exactly the way it was before Quantum Flux was played. If you can’t, the effect fails.

• Q: How does this card interact with, say, playing a card in a free trigger window during a skill test? Minh investigates, and plays Cryptic Research before committing cards? A: Time Warp resets the game state to the way it was immediately before the action was performed. So anything that happened during that action gets reset, as well. That includes the playing of fast cards, the committing of cards to skill tests or spending of resources to boost skills, attacks of opportunity, all of it gets reset.

• Q: Can I play Time Warp after an action ends with an investigator being defeated? A: If the action eliminated an investigator, another investigator can't play Time Warp in response to the action because the first investigator is no longer at the same location (they've been defeated).

• Q: Do I get Time Warp back after I play Time Warp? A: Time Warp itself is not reset. It is currently being played while you are resetting things, so it is in an in-between state (not quite in play, not in your hand or discard pile, just sort of in limbo). Then once everything is reset, you discard Time Warp, as normal.