I just want to be sure that I am understanding the rules correctly. In my quest phase I have only received location cards, and my active location also showed a location card. Since there is nothing to engage, this would mean the encounter and combat phases are not necessary and would go directly to the refresh phase, right?

Technically, those phases still happen, but nothing happens in them other than player actions - this can be relevant though because some things are limited by phase, so if you want to trigger them more times in a round then having those extra phases makes a definite difference.

1 hour ago, PocketWraith said:

Technically, those phases still happen, but nothing happens in them other than player actions - this can be relevant though because some things are limited by phase, so if you want to trigger them more times in a round then having those extra phases makes a definite difference.

Is there a good source for this? Not that I doubt it, but the last time I went looking, I didn't find a specific mention...

39 minutes ago, sappidus said:

Is there a good source for this? Not that I doubt it, but the last time I went looking, I didn't find a specific mention...

I mean, the rule book lays out the structure of a turn, including all of the phases. The burden of proof would be on finding something that says to skip phases, not something that says to not skip phases.

The rule book says:

"Each round is divided into 7 phases.... Once all 7 phases are complete, the round is over, and play proceeds to the resource phase of the next round."

So by definition each round must have each phase. In some cases nothing will happen in a phase unless players play an action (all phases have an action window), but by rule they must exist.

2 hours ago, PocketWraith said:

Technically, those phases still happen, but nothing happens in them other than player actions - this can be relevant though because some things are limited by phase, so if you want to trigger them more times in a round then having those extra phases makes a definite difference.

Protector of Lorien + Elven Light!

Caveat: some quest cards cause phases to be skipped, such as JdtA skipping the staging phase in 3B.

Edit: whoops, that's just skipping the staging step of the quest phase. The Lonely Mountain 1B skips the actual quest phase, and is a better example.

There's at least one player card that causes you to skip an entire phase (Doom Hangs Still).