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[Carline]

By the way, has someone compiled a list of all known infinite combos?

Following this suggestion of Holger, I’m starting this topic for us to list the known infinite loops with Dominion cards. I think it's also a better place to post them, instead of cards interaction thread where I was doing these posts.

I know these loops often need configurations that will never occur in a random game. However, that’s the beauty of Dominion: being a whole system of interrelated elements, it allows many approaches besides playing a competitive match. I myself have a lot of fun trying to find these loops and analyzing them.

On the following posts, I will describe the loops I read about and some I’ve found.

To make sense, the loops must be productive, giving a surplus amount of some resource at each cycle and not only doing a repetitive aimless act.

For each loop posted, I will try to identify the cards that do the fundamental roles for any infinite loop works. These roles I think are six (five if loop doesn’t occur in action phase):

- Allows repeat the same act
- Prevents from stop
- Ensures payload
- Ensures buys
- Ensures actions
- Produces surplus at each cycle

I would like to know the loops you already know, so please post them here, if you would like to. Thank you very much.

[Carline]

FORUM – TRADER LOOP

Setup
Forum on Kingdom
Play Area: 5 Highways or 5 bridges and a Goons
In Hand: Trader

Steps
1 – Buy Forum – Gain 1 VP from Goons
2 – Reveal Trader to instead gain a Silver
Repeat steps 1 and 2 indefinitely for infinite VPs

Roles
Allows repeat same act: Forum
Prevents from stop: Trader
Ensures payload: Highway (Bridge)
Ensures buys: Forum
Ensures actions: No need (loop in buy phase)
Produces surplus at each cycle: Goons

[Carline]

FORTRESS – ADVANCE LOOP

Setup
Hand: Priest, Fortress, Trader
Events: Travelling Fair, Advance
Landmark: Tomb

Steps
1 – Play Priest - now you have $2
2  - Trash Fortress
3 – Buy Travelling Fair – now you have 2 buys
4 – Buy Advance
5 – Trash Fortress – gain 1 VP from Tomb and $2 from Priest
6 – Gain any action card from supply (Advance)
7 – Use Trader reaction to instead gain a silver
Repeat steps 3 to 7 indefinitely for infinite VPs

Roles
Allows repeat same act: Travelling Fair
Prevents from stop: Trader
Ensures payload: Priest
Ensures buys: Travelling Fair
Ensures actions: No need (loop in buy phase)
Produces surplus at each cycle: Tomb

[Carline]

EXPERIMENT – WAY OF THE CHAMELEON LOOP

Setup
Hand: 3 Highways, Goons
Empty deck and empty discard pile
Way: Way of the Chameleon
Events: Seaway, Gamble
Seaway +1 Buy token in Experiment pile

Steps
1 – Play the 3 Highways
2 – Play Goons – now you have $2 and 2 buys
3 – Buy Experiment at Cost 0 – gain 1 VP from Goons – receive another Experiment
4 – Buy Gamble
5 – Play Experiment as Chameleon – gain $2 and +1 buy (by Seaway token) - Experiment returns to its pile
6 – Buy Gamble
7 – Play Experiment as Chameleon – gain $2 and +1 buy - Experiment returns to its pile
Repeat steps 3 to 7 indefinitely for infinite VPs

Roles
Allows repeat same act: Gamble
Prevents from stop: Experiment
Ensures payload: Way of the Chameleon
Ensures buys: Seaway
Ensures actions: No need (loop in buy phase)
Produces surplus at each cycle: Goons

[Carline]

VILLA – WAY OF THE HORSE LOOP

Setup
Way of the Horse, Seaway and Villa in the setup
Hand: 4 Highways and a Goons
Seaway +1 buy token in Villa pile

Steps
1 – Play the 4 Highways
2 – Play Goons
3 – Buy Villa – Gain 1 VP from Goons
On gain Villa goes to hand, gives + 1 action and returns game to action phase
4 – Play Villa as Way of the Horse – gain +1 Buy - Villa returns to its pile
Repeat steps 3 and 4 indefinitely for infinite VPs

Variant with Merchant Guild

Setup
Way of the Horse, Seaway and Villa in the setup
Hand: 4 Merchant Guilds and a Goons
4 Villagers in Villagers Mat
Seaway +1 buy token in Villa pile

Steps
1 – Play the 4 Merchant Guilds
2 – Play Goons
3 – Buy Villa – Gain 1 VP from Goons – Gain 4 Coffers from Merchant Guilds
On gain Villa goes to hand, gives + 1 action and returns game to action phase
4 – Play Villa as Way of the Horse – gain +1 Buy - Villa returns to its pile
5 – Play 4 Coffers
Repeat steps 3 to 5 indefinitely for infinite VPs

Roles
Allows repeat same act: Villa
Prevents from stop: Way of the Horse
Ensures payload: Highway (Merchant Guild)
Ensures buys: Seaway
Ensures actions: Villa
Produces surplus at each cycle: Goons

[Carline]

TREASURER – BONFIRE LOOP

Setup
Events: Toil, Bonfire, Seaway, Training
Project: Capitalism (player cube already there)
Seaway +1 Buy token in Treasurer pile
Training + $1 token in Treasurer pile
Two Treasurers already in the trash
Two Treasurers in hand

Steps
1 – Skip action phase
2 – Play Treasurer – gain a Treasurer from trash ($4 – 2 Buys)
3 – Play Treasurer –gain a Treasurer from trash ($8 – 3 Buys)
4 – Buy Bonfire – trash two Treasurers from play ($5 – 2 Buys)
5 – Buy Toil ($3 – 2 Buys)
6 – Play Treasurer – gain a Treasurer from trash ($7 – 3 Buys)
7 – Buy Toil ($5 – 3 Buys)
8 – Play Treasurer – gain a Treasurer from trash ($9 – 4 Buys)
Repeat Steps 4 to 8 indefinitely for infinite money and buys

Roles
Allows repeat same act: Toil
Prevents from stop: Bonfire
Ensures payload: Treasurer
Ensures buys: Seaway
Ensures actions: No need (loop in buy phase)
Produces surplus at each cycle: Training for $, Seaway for buys

[Carline]

ROGUE – BONFIRE LOOP

Setup
Events: Toil, Bonfire
Project: Canal – player cube already there
Trash: 2 King’s Courts, 2 Rogues, Silk Merchant, Monument
Hand: 2 King’s Courts, 2 Rogues, Silk Merchant
Empty deck and empty discard pile

Steps
1 – Play King’s Court
2 – King’s a King’s Court
3 – King’s a Rogue – gain 3 cards from trash – gain $6
4 – King’s a Rogue – gain 3 cards from trash – gain $6
5 – King’s a Silk Merchant – draws 6 cards – gain 3 buys
6 – Play Monument – gain $2 and 1 VP
7 – Buy 3 Bonfires – trash all cards in play
8 – Buy Toil
9 – Play King’s Court
10 – King’s a King’s Court
11 – King’s a Rogue – gain 3 cards from trash – gain $6
12 – King’s a Rogue – gain 3 cards from trash – gain $6
13 – King’s a Silk Merchant – draws 6 cards – gain 3 buys
14 – Buy Toil
15 – Play Monument – gain $2 and 1 VP
Repeat steps 7 to 15 indefinitely for infinite VPs

Roles
Allows repeat same act: Toil
Prevents from stop: Bonfire
Ensures payload: Rogue
Ensures buys: Silk Merchant
Ensures actions: No need (loop in buy phase)
Produces surplus at each cycle: Monument

[Carline]

It is still possible with just Way of the Horse, since it can in fact remove the throne itself. Consider the following position:

3x cost reduction from bridge/highway.
king's court is in play, and just played another king's court.
deck and discard are empty. hand contains only a single ironworks.

first play of kc: way of the horse, returning it
second play of kc: ironworks
 first play of ironworks: gain ironworks
 second play of ironworks: gain kc
 third play of ironworks: way of the horse, returning it and drawing ironworks and kc.
third play of kc: kc

end position is exactly identical to the start, except you have more +actions.

This one was posted by Mad4math in another thread:

KING’S COURT – WAY OF THE HORSE LOOP

Setup
Way: Way of the Horse
3 Highways or Bridges already played
Hand: 2 King’s Court, Ironworks
Empty deck and empty discard pile

Steps
1 – Play a King’s Court
2 – King’s a King’s Court
       3 – First play of King’s Court: Way of the Horse – card goes back to pile
       4 – Second play of King’s Court: King’s Ironworks
             5 – First play of Ironworks: gain a King’s Court (gain an action)
             6 – Second Play of Ironworks: gain an Ironworks (gain an action)
             7 – Third play of Ironworks: Way of the Horse – card goes back to pile –draw two cards
       8 – Third play of King’s Court - King’s a King’s Court
Repeat steps 3 to 8 indefinitely for infinite actions

Roles
Allows repeat same act: King’s Court
Prevents from stop: Way of the Horse
Ensures payload: Highway
Ensures buys: in this case, gains instead of buys - Ironworks
Ensures actions: King’s Court
Produces surplus at each cycle: Ironworks
 

[Carline]

Draw deck
Play 3 highway
loop:
Buy stonemason, overpay for two cavalry
Play 2 cavalry with +$1 token on it using way of the horse
Play stonemason with +Action token on it using way of the horse
Repeat loop

Generates infinite coins, buys, and actions. You can empty the piles and play them all the same turn.

This one was posted by Pubby:

CAVALRY - STONEMASON LOOP

Setup
Way: Way of the Horse
Events: Lost Arts, Training
Lost Arts +1 action token in Stonemason pile
Training +$1 token in Cavalry pile
(You can use a Teacher to place tokens, instead of Training and Lost Arts)
Empty deck and empty discard pile
Hand: 3 Highways

Steps
1 – Play the 3 Highways
2 – Buy Stonemason, overpay for two Cavalry – draw all three
3 – Play the two Cavalry as Way of the Horse (gain $2)
4 – Play Stonemason as Way of the Horse (gain 1 action)
Repeat steps 2 to 4 for infinite coins, actions and buys

Roles
Allows repeat same act: Cavalry
Prevents from stop: Way of the Horse
Ensures payload: Training
Ensures buys: Cavalry
Ensures actions: Way of the Horse
Produces surplus at each cycle: coins – Training; actions – Lost Arts; buys – Cavalry

[GendoIkari]

Am I wrong, or does Way of the Mouse by itself lead to a trivial infinite loop (like Moat)? Play a card, choose to use Way of the Mouse, when you play the set aside card, choose to use Way of the Mouse. Repeat.

You can make this productive by having a Champion for infinite actions. And turn that into infinite with Diadem.

Whether or not Champion without Diadem is considered "productive", because you can get infinite actions, is a question of semantics... are more actions production if you have a Champion in play?

*Edit* I just checked the Wiki, and found that there's a ruling that says you aren't allowed to do this. Is this an errata on Way of the Mouse? Where was this talked about before?

[Donald X.]

Am I wrong, or does Way of the Mouse by itself lead to a trivial infinite loop (like Moat)? Play a card, choose to use Way of the Mouse, when you play the set aside card, choose to use Way of the Mouse. Repeat.

You can make this productive by having a Champion for infinite actions. And turn that into infinite with Diadem.

Whether or not Champion without Diadem is considered "productive", because you can get infinite actions, is a question of semantics... are more actions production if you have a Champion in play?

*Edit* I just checked the Wiki, and found that there's a ruling that says you aren't allowed to do this. Is this an errata on Way of the Mouse? Where was this talked about before?

It was talked about on the discord, which is the place with the most Dominion traffic these days.

It's a ruling and it's in the online version. I don't know that it could go in the card text. The rulebook/set won't get reprinted for a while so it's not on my mind as to how to best indicate it when the time comes.

[GendoIkari]

Am I wrong, or does Way of the Mouse by itself lead to a trivial infinite loop (like Moat)? Play a card, choose to use Way of the Mouse, when you play the set aside card, choose to use Way of the Mouse. Repeat.

You can make this productive by having a Champion for infinite actions. And turn that into infinite with Diadem.

Whether or not Champion without Diadem is considered "productive", because you can get infinite actions, is a question of semantics... are more actions production if you have a Champion in play?

*Edit* I just checked the Wiki, and found that there's a ruling that says you aren't allowed to do this. Is this an errata on Way of the Mouse? Where was this talked about before?

It was talked about on the discord, which is the place with the most Dominion traffic these days.

It's a ruling and it's in the online version. I don't know that it could go in the card text. The rulebook/set won't get reprinted for a while so it's not on my mind as to how to best indicate it when the time comes.

Is it something that came up at all during playtesting?

[sudgy]

An idea for wording is "If this is not the set aside card, play it, leaving it there."  Of course, this may not be as simple as one might want, but it's an idea.

[faust]

An idea for wording is "If this is not the set aside card, play it, leaving it there."  Of course, this may not be as simple as one might want, but it's an idea.

"The set aside card" is at least potentially confusing? It could be the set aside card from Inheritance.

[sudgy]

An idea for wording is "If this is not the set aside card, play it, leaving it there."  Of course, this may not be as simple as one might want, but it's an idea.

"The set aside card" is at least potentially confusing? It could be the set aside card from Inheritance.

My precedent on that is Way of the Mouse.

[Donald X.]

Is it something that came up at all during playtesting?

No.

[GendoIkari]

I suppose this means that we can never see a Command card costing or ... because if we did, even with potential errata, you'd have an infinite loop that could become productive just by having Adventure pile tokens.

[Carline]

MANDARIN – IRONWORKS LOOP

Setup
Way: Way of the Horse
Project: Capitalism (cube on it)
Empty deck and empty discard pile
Hand: Highway, Mandarin, Ironworks

Steps
1 – Play Highway
2 – Play Ironworks – gain Mandarin – gain an action and $1 - topdeck Ironworks
3 – Play Mandarin as Way of the Horse – Mandarin returns to pile – draw Ironworks and Mandarin
Repeat steps 2 and 3 indefinitely for infinite money
(with tokens on Ironworks or Mandarin it can also produces actions and buys)

Roles
Allows repeat same act: Mandarin
Prevents from stop: Way of the Horse
Ensures payload: Highway
Ensures buys: In this case gains - Ironworks
Ensures actions: Ironworks
Produces surplus at each cycle: Ironworks

[Carline]

KILN – MANDARIN LOOP

Setup
Way: Way of the Horse
Project: Capitalism (cube on it)
Event: Lost Arts (token on Kiln)
Empty deck and empty discard pile
Hand: Kiln, 2 Mandarins

Steps
1 – Play Kiln – gain an action – gain $2
2 – Play Mandarin as Way of the Horse – gain Mandarin – topdeck Mandarin and Kiln – draw both
3 – Play Mandarin as Way of the Horse – Mandarin returns to its pile – draw Mandarin
Repeat steps 1 to 3 indefinitely for infinite money

Roles
Allows repeat same act: Mandarin
Prevents from stop: Way of the Horse
Ensures payload: no payload needed
Ensures buys: in this case gains - Kiln
Ensures actions: Lost Arts
Produces surplus at each cycle: Kiln

[mad4math]

I think it is more productive to list loops that use only one distinct card from our current short list of cards required for inifinite loops, since there are a lot of similar loops using the same card. Anyway here are a few.

Mandarin only loop

play scepter playing lurker. gain mandarin from the trash, reveal watchtower to trash it. two scepters and your favorite treasure are topdecked.
play your favorite treasure
play scepter playing smithy, drawing the two scepters and your favorite treasure.

Mint only loop

buy a mint, reveal trader to keep it in the supply
buy toil, playing crown
  play crown twice
    play scepter playing treasurer twice, gaining 2 crowns to hand
    play scepter playing treasurer twice, gaining 2 scepters to hand
Use travelling fair or seaway or something for the buys (this loop currently nets +$5 and -1 buys).

[Carline]

I think it is more productive to list loops that use only one distinct card from our current short list of cards required for inifinite loops, since there are a lot of similar loops using the same card.

Trying to see by another angle the question about which cards are essential to infinite loops and so refine the list of them:

- When you restart the loop, all copies of all cards in the game must be again in the same place they were in the beginning of the loop.

- The game has to be in the same phase of the beggining of the loop when you restart the loop.

- In the restart of the loop you have to get back the resources (actions, buys, coins) you spent during the loop

- You can’t go back to the same situation in clean-up phase.

- There’s no way to remove cards from play and put them back where they were in night phase.

So, the loops can only occur:

- In both, action phase and buy phase
- Within buy phase only
- Within action phase only

If the loops occur in both action and buy phases you need Villa or Cavalry to go back to same situation.

If the loop occurs within buy phase you can’t go back to the same situation only buying things (you have to restore your buy power) or playing treasure type cards that don’t play actions (they can't remove cards from play and put them back where they were). You need actions to be played. So you need one or more of the cards that allow play actions in buy phase: Scepter, Capitalism, Gamble, Toil or March.

If the loop occurs within action phase, you need to be able to remove cards from play and put them back where they were in this phase only.

Cards when removed from play only can be recovered if they went to:

- Pile
- Trash or
- Deck, by gaining Mandarin

In all this cases, you need to gain a card from pile or trash to go back to initial position. In action phase you can’t do it by buying (Black Market doesn’t buy from supply piles).

So, you need a gainer. Gainers don’t remove themselves from play. So, you have to be able to remove cards from play, play a gainer and remove gainer from play, all in action phase.

There are only two known ways to do that:

- Gaining Mandarin with cube on Capitalism, so you will be able to topdeck the gainer.

- Playing two King’s Court and using the third slot of second King's Court to play a King’s Court again and restart the cycle. In meanwhile, you have six actions plays, four of them that don’t put a card in play, so you can remove and gain back both King's Court and the gainer.

All loops I saw that occur only in action phase use one of these two mechanisms.

Since you can’t do the Mandarin trick without Capitalism and Capitalism is an enabler also in buy phase, the real enablers in action phase are King’s Court and Capitalism.

Finally, we have the case of the only act you can do that changes nothing in the game (cards place, game phase and your amount of actions, buys and coins): react to a gain with a Trader when silver pile is out.

That said, you can’t do an infinite loop without one of these cards:

- Villa
- Cavalry
- Scepter
- Capitalism
- Gamble
- Toil
- March
- King’s Court
- Trader

[Donald X.]

I suppose this means that we can never see a Command card costing or ... because if we did, even with potential errata, you'd have an infinite loop that could become productive just by having Adventure pile tokens.

No, errata could fix it. But yes, I considered "non-Command" on Mouse, and decided, I could commit to no $2-$3 Command card.

[GendoIkari]

I suppose this means that we can never see a Command card costing or ... because if we did, even with potential errata, you'd have an infinite loop that could become productive just by having Adventure pile tokens.

No, errata could fix it. But yes, I considered "non-Command" on Mouse, and decided, I could commit to no $2-$3 Command card.

I just meant the specific errata of not allowing you to play the Mouse card as Mouse. But yeah, if you ever really want a cheap Command card; you could just errata Mouse to be non-Command.

[faust]

I suppose this means that we can never see a Command card costing or ... because if we did, even with potential errata, you'd have an infinite loop that could become productive just by having Adventure pile tokens.

No, errata could fix it. But yes, I considered "non-Command" on Mouse, and decided, I could commit to no $2-$3 Command card.

I just meant the specific errata of not allowing you to play the Mouse card as Mouse. But yeah, if you ever really want a cheap Command card; you could just errata Mouse to be non-Command.

Or you could put an "if this is in play" clause on the Command card.

[mad4math]

I will note that it is possible to get infinite loops in every phase, including your opponent's phases and the between turns donate phase, due to reacting with sheepdog as way of the vassal hitting some throne room. From the throne room you can create some of the action phase loops described.

Here is a loop that uses none of the cards in the new list:

hand is crown, mandarin, your favorite treasure, horn of plenty, black market
deck is crown, mandarin, your favorite treasure, horn of plenty
play a black market
  play a crown
    play mandarin as way of the horse
    play mandarin as way of the horse
  play your favorite treasure
  play horn of plenty, gaining mandarin
  repeat