G: TL;DR: Multiple Man is one of the least intuitive characters in MPQ because his powers don't create "tiles" in the normal sense. They create Dupes, and Dupes only behave like their tile type when they are actually removed from the board. Most of the reports I found from players who thought he was bugged turned out to be misunderstandings of exactly when a Dupe is considered to have activated. citeturn0search1turn0search2turn0search0

Here's the practical version.

The Hidden Rule

Every Dupe is a special object with a color attached to it.

When you use Yellow ("My Own Best Friend"), you choose a color and spend AP of that color. For every 2 AP spent, Jamie creates Dupes of the corresponding type. citeturn0search1

The important part:

A Dupe is not necessarily that tile.

It only behaves as that tile when it is removed from the board in the appropriate way.

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The Most Common Confusion: Yellow Dupes

Yellow Dupes are trap tiles.

The text says:

when this tile leaves the board, Multiple Man is healed

Players naturally assume:

"I matched it away. Why didn't I get healed?"

The problem is that "leave the board" and "be destroyed" are not always treated identically by MPQ's engine. Multiple reports exist of players expecting healing from Yellow Dupes and not getting it because the removal method didn't count the way they expected. citeturn0search2turn0search0

In practice, the safest assumption is:

• Direct matches generally work.
• Some destruction effects don't.
• Board clears can be inconsistent.
• Certain powers that remove tiles without "matching" them may not trigger the trap.

This is not unique to Multiple Man; trap tiles have had weird interactions throughout MPQ history.

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Black Dupes Are Even Stranger

Black Dupes create a repeater called "Worst Enemy."

The repeater:

• damages Multiple Man
• damages two random enemies

every turn. citeturn0search1

This means Black Dupes are often actively harmful unless you're exploiting:

• self-damage synergies
• resurrection mechanics
• special challenge objectives

Many players accidentally generate Black Dupes expecting a benefit and then wonder why Jamie is punching himself in the face.

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Reabsorb Doesn't Work The Way People Expect

Green power:

1. Spends Green AP.
2. Reabsorbs Dupes.
3. Gives health.
4. Gives partial AP from the colors of the absorbed Dupes. citeturn0search1

The key sentence is:

Destroyed tiles deal damage, but do not generate AP. citeturn0search1

So if you're thinking:

"I just destroyed 8 red Dupes. Why didn't I get 8 red AP?"

That's not what happens.

Instead:

• Reabsorb calculates AP based on the Dupes.
• Then grants only a fraction of that amount.
• The board destruction itself doesn't generate AP.

This makes it feel inconsistent if you're expecting normal tile destruction behavior.

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The Win Condition Is Weird

His passive eventually says:

Win the match if X friendly Dupes exist.

Depending on cover level this threshold changes. citeturn0search1

The strange part is that this counts friendly Dupes, not necessarily visible special tiles you can easily count by eye.

So sometimes players think:

"I have a ton of Dupes, why didn't I win?"

while the game is counting a different number than they're estimating.

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What I Suspect Is Actually Happening

If you're seeing behavior that seems random, the culprit is probably one of three things:

1. Trap-tile timing

Yellow and Purple Dupes only trigger under specific removal conditions.

2. Non-standard tile removal

Powers that destroy, replace, convert, or overwrite tiles often interact differently than a normal match.

3. AP accounting

Reabsorb gives AP according to its own formula, not according to standard tile destruction rules.

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If you describe a specific board state ("I had 4 yellow Dupes, matched them with Polaris, and got no heal" or similar), I can probably reverse-engineer whether you found an actual bug or one of MPQ's notorious wording problems. Based on what I found, Multiple Man has generated enough confusion that there are Reddit threads literally titled things like "how does he work?" and "this power will have no effect." citeturn0search2turn0search0

G: I think you've stumbled onto something real, and the reason you're having trouble finding an explanation is that there seem to be three different versions of Multiple Man being discussed online simultaneously:

1. The official power text.
2. The way the power originally launched.
3. The way the current client actually behaves.

Looking at the current published power text, Yellow is supposed to work like this:

"Drain up to X AP in the selected color; then for each 2 AP used create 2 Dupes..." citeturn0search6

If the text is accurate, then:

• Select Red with 6 Red AP → spend 6 Red AP → create 6 Dupes.
• Select Blue with 8 Blue AP → spend 8 Blue AP → create 8 Dupes.
• Yellow AP should be irrelevant except when Yellow itself is the selected color. citeturn0search6

What caught my eye is your observation:

"it feels like non-yellow colors are creating Dupes based on yellow AP"

That is not supported by the published description at all. If that's what you're seeing, then one of two things is happening:

Possibility A: Display/UI bug

The power preview may be calculating from Yellow AP while the actual resolution uses the selected color.

MPQ has had plenty of UI-preview mismatches over the years.

Possibility B: Actual power bug

The creation count may genuinely be referencing Yellow AP internally.

This would explain exactly the behavior you're describing:

• Have 10 Yellow AP.
• Select Red with only 4 Red AP.
• Game attempts to create 10 Dupes.
• Board lacks enough valid locations.
• Power appears to fail or partially resolve.

That would produce a very confusing "sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't" pattern.

Something else I found

Historically, Multiple Man has had enough weird interactions that players reported:

• soft-locked boards
• AI repeatedly matching Dupe tiles without progress
• unexpected Dupe placement failures
• interactions that depended on available board space rather than AP alone citeturn0search0

So the character already has a reputation for edge-case behavior.

The problem with recent information

I spent most of the search budget trying to find reports from the last month specifically, and I honestly didn't find a recent bug thread discussing the exact Yellow-AP issue. What I found instead was a lot of fragmented discussion and old bug reports. The official forums have largely moved around and aren't nearly as searchable as they used to be. citeturn0search1turn0search16

The fastest way to test your theory

Try this exact setup:

Yellow AP	Red AP	Selected Color
0	10	Red
10	0	Red
10	10	Red

If the number of Dupes tracks Yellow AP, then you've found a genuine bug.

If it tracks Red AP, then the bug is elsewhere.

If you tell me:

• what cover level your Multiple Man is,
• whether you're talking about 4★ or 5★ Multiple Man,
• and one specific example ("I had 8 Yellow, 4 Red, selected Red, and got X Dupes"),

I can probably reverse-engineer the formula from the numbers. Right now your description actually sounds more like an internal AP-reference bug than a misunderstanding of the power text.

G: That actually sounds like the right next step.

One thing the search turned up that I had glossed over before is that the official wording is very explicit:

"Drain up to X AP in the selected color; then for each 2 AP used create 2 Dupes..." citeturn0search2turn0search3

The reason your observation caught my attention is that the power is not supposed to care about Yellow AP at all, except that Yellow is the button you're pressing. The amount drained should come from the color you selected after pressing the button. citeturn0search2turn0search3

So if you were mentally tracking:

• "I have 10 Yellow AP"
• "I selected Red"
• "I got 10 Dupes"

it's very easy to accidentally conclude "Yellow AP matters" when the real test is:

• How much Red AP did I have?
• Did that amount actually decrease afterward?

The fact that you've now realized you weren't watching the non-Yellow AP pool is exactly the kind of thing that solves mysteries like this.

Also, don't feel bad about missing it. Multiple Man's text is effectively three powers stuffed into one description, with variable AP costs, special tile rules, a win condition, and a bunch of exceptions. Even veteran MPQ players spent weeks arguing over how he worked when he launched. citeturn0search3turn0search0

If your test shows that:

• Red AP decreases when you select Red,
• the number of Dupes corresponds to the Red AP spent,

then the power is probably working as designed and the confusion is just the wording.

If instead you find:

• Red AP does not decrease,
• Yellow AP is somehow determining Dupe count,

then you've found something much more interesting, because that would directly contradict the published power description. citeturn0search2turn0search3

I'll be interested to hear what numbers you get when you check, because that's a testable hypothesis rather than MPQ folklore.