Gloomhaven (5th Printing)

Gloomhaven is, for now at least, one of the biggest, baddest games out there and it is currently sitting pretty on the top of Boardgamegeek’s list of the best games of all time. Take that, chess.

For those not in the know, Gloomhaven is a campaign-based dungeon crawler where a team of plucky heroes will try to uncover a huge sprawling web of storylines set in and around the titular city of Gloomhaven.

Welcome To The Dungeon

There are two halves to the game. The bigger chunk of the game is where you will be heading into various dungeons, caves and castles to deal with the beasties that call them home. You do this by playing down action cards and resolving them in turn. These cards will let you move about the map and dish out spells and attacks to your various foes.

There is treasure to find and loot to equip. And once you’re done and dusted there are story threads that get revealed and you’re off again to do a bit more adventuring. There are also various random events that can get triggered while you are off on the road and these can introduce you to various new characters and start off new side quests.

It is such a unique experience in board gaming and for what it is it comes in a pretty small package. (The only comparable game I can think of is Kingdom Death: Monster which is many times the size and price of Gloomhaven).

One of the big innovations Gloomhaven brought to the table was the fact that this was a fully cooperative experience. The big dungeon crawler type games that came before, Descent, Imperial Assault, etc. All needed one player to take an adversarial role and take control of the many monsters, hazards and traps that the heroes had to wind their way through. Gloomhaven is different.

Enemy Types

With Gloomhaven, each of the enemy types is controlled by a set of AI cards. There are loads of different decks of these meaning different enemies act differently. Archers will hang back and take shots from across the room whereas something a bit bigger may charge at you to give you a good smacking. It’s not quite as good as squaring off against a human player as you can get to learn these AI move sets eventually, but it’s a good facsimile.

And because of this, you can solo play Gloomhaven. You take control of 2 individual heroes and away you go! Also, you don’t quite get the full experience as you know what both characters are going to do each turn, which takes away a little bit of the fuzziness around planning each turn.

You also don’t really get the fun that the hidden objectives bring by players acting a little oddly each game in order to complete their hidden agenda. But apart from those two little downsides, the rest of the game is as good as playing with a group of players.

Dropping In For Tea And Goblins

One of the other nice things about Gloomhaven is that it’s possible for players to drop in and out of a campaign as you go through. This is actually how I ended up discovering the joys of solo Gloomhaven for myself. I started off in a group of 4 players. We all left the city of Gloomhaven with a spring in our step.

Then, after a few months, one of our parties had to drop out as she had a baby. Then covid stopped the other 2 players coming round to dungeon dive a few months later. I didn’t want to give up on our campaign as we were a decent way through it at this point, so I ended up playing solo over the next few months.

I had a great time going off and exploring new regions of the map and heading off on different side quests. Then, as the lockdown eased off a bit, my character headed back to the city of Gloomhaven, walked into a tavern and met 2 of their previous party members and had a big old catch up about what’s been happening on the roads around the city. I showed off all my new shiny gear and then we headed back out on the roads again as a group.

Back Into The Fray

Apart from our character levels being off for a mission or two, it was like old times again. While I’m never going to say that solo is the best way to play Gloomhaven, the camaraderie is a brilliant element of the game, it definitely does have its advantages. For a start, this game is huge. I’ve been playing it for about 2 years now and I don’t feel like I’m near the end of it.

The idea of being able to get the same group of friends together for the amount of time it takes to get through this campaign is bonkers to me. I’m sure there are people who have done it, but I quite liked the flexibility of being able to crack it out on an evening when I had an hour or three to spare and knock through a mission or two.

The story is still brilliant and twists and turns just the same as playing it in a group. What I’m saying is this. If you’ve been intrigued by Gloomhaven and haven’t picked it up because you were worried you wouldn’t be able to get some friends around to play it often enough, I’m here to tell you that you’ll have pretty much the same experience soloing the game.

And then if something changes and you can get a regular game group together you can easily introduce them to the game at a later date with just a little backstory explanation for some context.

A Great Experience

There is a reason Gloomhaven is currently sat at number 1. It is such a great experience and I’ve very rarely heard of anybody who was interested in the idea and then didn’t like the game when they played it.

That said, if you are still unsure about spending what is a large chunk of money on a single, although massive, game. You can always try Jaws of the Lion. Which is a short campaign which contains most of what makes Gloomhaven special. The size is scaled back and you do miss out a little bit of the character progression but it is another great option to get you into the series.

It’s a game that you’ll frequently see sitting at the top of ‘Greatest Board Game Of All Time’ lists, but Gloomhaven can be an intimidating option when you first begin unboxing and getting ready to play. If you’ve been put off from starting, or if you’ve had a try but struggled to make much progress, we’re here to give you some helpful tips that will soon have your adventure back on track! It might be a complex game, but as we indicated in our review this one is well worth the effort once you get going.

Failure To Prepare Is Preparing To Fail

That’s a quote from Benjamin Franklin, and whilst you don’t need to worry about anything quite so large as founding a country his words are equally fitting when you start playing Gloomhaven. The game is effectively a series of individual missions in a persistent world, with each one potentially being a full afternoon of gaming in itself. Helpfully the game has in-built mechanics that make it possible to play each mission with different characters, and even different numbers of players. I have to stress though that the most satisfying experience is working your way through these connected scenarios with the same group of friends. Try and pick a group who you can regularly meet up with and progress through the world of Gloomhaven together.

The other two key ingredients in this preparation step are time and space. This game is a bit of a beast, and you will need a decent size table to accommodate the various dungeon tiles, resource cards, player mats, etc. Setting up all these things can take a bit of time in itself, but even once that’s done you’ll need at least an hour or two to complete even one mission. Make sure you’re being realistic and giving yourself enough playtime, or you’ll have to stop mid-mission and inevitably lose a bit of momentum!

Assemble The Right Team

Each player in Gloomhaven will pick a character to use in their adventures. As you might expect they all have different strengths and weaknesses and different situations in which they excel. An Inox Brute might be the ideal choice for a player looking to dive straight into combat, whereas a Spellweaver will give you strong ranged options and the opportunity to heal your allies. Getting a good balance of characters will make your life far easier in almost every mission, so if your friends have all taken melee-focused tank characters it might be worth looking at the Tinkerer or Mindthief to give yourselves more options. This is especially important for beginners at the start of the game, but later on as characters retire and are replaced by new adventurers you should still be mindful of where your party might have gaps in their skill sets. If you know that you’re skewing heavily towards one sort of playstyle then think about which cards you take into your missions so that you don’t get left without any way to heal, or do meaningful damage to bosses.

Speaking of your cards…

Understand Your Deck

Every character has a unique deck of action cards that you will pick a hand from for your next mission. Picking the right hand starts with understanding what each card does, and perhaps more importantly what compromises it demands. Sure, the top action of this card might give you a great way to heal a party member who’s taken a big hit, but what if the bottom action is the only way you can jump over an obstacle to reach that all-important treasure chest? You can only do one or the other on a given turn, so the power of this card may become more limited. Consider how to build a hand of cards that will give you options in combat, and pay close attention to those initiative numbers too. You may have a great set of cards for dishing out damage, but if the enemy monsters are always going before you and immobilising or disarming then those cards become worthless.

It’s also worth noting that you won’t know ahead of time exactly what threats you’ll be facing when you pick your cards, but you can probably make some guesses if you know the mission name. A mission titled ‘Inox Encampment’ is unlikely to give you a lot of elements to use for your Spellweaver magic, but a mission called ‘Temple Of The Elements’ could be a different story…

Burnout Is Real!

Characters don’t die in Gloomhaven, but they do become exhausted and have to retreat if they lose enough health or if they burn through all their cards. Action cards that are burned upon use are often the most powerful in your deck, but you need to be cautious and strategic about when you use that option. Burning cards too early can seriously limit the overall number of turns you’re going to get before you are exhausted, and for my party this was a real challenge in the early missions.

Thinking carefully about when to rest to refresh your cards is also vital. A long rest is usually preferable but it does leave you vulnerable for a turn where your character cannot move or defend themselves. If you were planning to open that door to the final boss encounter, maybe take a moment to consider whether it’s better to take a long rest first, while there are no monsters running at you!

Understand Your Enemy

When a new monster is revealed, pay attention to their movement and abilities, as shown on their monster card. If they have a ranged attack then you might want to close the distance to put them at a disadvantage, whereas if they have a shield you might need to use a more powerful damage card to get some meaningful hits.

Status effects and special moves are particularly important. An enemy that wounds with melee attacks is best kept at arm’s length, but one who will summon other monsters should be dealt with as quickly as possible. You’ll also start to understand how fast or slow these monsters tend to act after a couple of turns have passed, so think about whether you need to use higher initiative actions in order to be effective.

Shop Till You Drop

Our final tip is something you can take care of before you even leave town for your mission, and that’s making sure you have stocked up on items and blessings. Items can be real game-changers in Gloomhaven and many of them will be usable more than once in a scenario as they will be refreshed after a long rest. A net that immobilises your enemies can keep a monster from surrounding your allies, or a pair of boots that lets you move faster through difficult terrain can give you the extra reach you need to get to a mission objective. At a minimum having a couple of healing potions in your party can be the difference between victory and defeat against those hard-hitting bosses.

You can also pay a small fee to the Sanctuary Of The Great Oak in order to get blessings added to your modifier deck. A blessing will give you double damage on an attack, which can lead to some huge hits in crucial moments. Having blessings and items will often change the odds dramatically in your favour, so take a moment to do that shopping in town before you head out. Pay attention to new items that may also appear in the shop as you continue your adventures, they can often be the perfect complement to a particular character’s playstyle.

That’s it for this guide, hopefully these Gloomhaven top tips will have you living your best adventuring life in no time.