I understand the rules for how search tokens are placed according to the number of hero players in the campaign.

Also I am aware that a search card is taken from the desk after a player uses an action to search.

My question is when these cards are returned to the deck is it reshuffled at the end of the encounter?

With this approach the nothing card or treasure hoard card could theoretically be drawn many times.

The other option is to discard the card to the back of the deck and over time all of the cards would be drawn during a campaign but exactly when would still be unknown.

which way do you guys play?

Cards are only placed back in the desk after an quest (and after been used to accumulate gold for shopping), not between encounters.

The way it works is this:

1) heroes draw search cards as they Search the tokens. (Nothing, Treasure chest and/or Secret Room are removed from play after being resolved)

2) heroes flip over search cards they use during the quest, but do not return them to the deck.

3) at the end of the quest (not the end of one encounter, the end of the entire quest), heroes sell off all search cards they drew - whether or not those cards were used during the quest - and claim gold equal to the value listed on each. Heroes may not choose to keep search cards after the quest has ended.

4) The entire search deck is now collected and reshuffled for the next quest.

In this way, each individual search card may be drawn exactly once during a given quest, and all will be available for the next quest. By the way, FFG has also clarified that if the heroes somehow draw the entire search deck (which is possible with certain skill combos, like Appraisal) during a quest, there is no replacement of cards. Once the deck is gone there's no more point in searching until next quest (unless they still need to look for the unique token for a quest objective.)

Steve-O said:

Does that mean for the rest of the campaign or until the quest is over? Maybe i'm a bit retarded and didn't understand it quite well but i might as well just ask to clarify.

Cards 'removed form play' will get shuffled back in at the start of the next quest. Each quest starts with the same search deck.